Come weekend, speed demons, stunt riders take over city roads

Hyderabad: Come weekend, a group of youth create ruckus with illegal reckless bike stunts and racing in several parts of the city, especially in Hyderabad’s IT Corridor. These youths are engaging in perilous street performances on their bikes during the late-night hours and creating nuisance. These bikers were engaged in unlawful activities for the sake of online popularity for reels and short videos.

Police registered cases against over 250 youngsters aged between 19 and 26 in the last two months, including 40 cases alone in the last week involved in illegal bike stunts and racing in the western part of the city. These young riders continued to engage in high-risk activities and are ruling the roost and wreaking havoc by making loud noises from their vehicles and executing dangerous stunts at midnight, which forced the residents to complain to the police for strict action against those involved.

During the Diwali festival, a group of bikers has sparked outrage on social media after videos surfaced of them recklessly performing stunts on their bikes. This time it was also observed that the stunts were also performed in an auto-rickshaw and a young rider riding a bike while setting off firecrackers. Some youngsters were seen filming the stunts on their mobile phones.

On various social media platforms, reels or short videos of the youth doing stunts went viral, and many netizens have expressed their frustration and asked the police for strict action and to take swift measures to curb such reckless behaviour by these bikers on the city’s roads.

It has been observed that in their quest to create viral reels and gain social media fame, these youngsters have increasingly resorted to risky stunts, performing dangerous bike tricks.

On Sunday, senior IPS officer and TGSRTC Managing Director VC Sajjanar expressed strong disapproval of these incidents, sharing videos of the stunts on X (formerly Twitter) with pointed criticism. “What kind of thrill is this on a festival day? Where is society heading?” he questioned, highlighting the dangerous and disruptive nature of these acts.

In an incident that surfaced on social media, the young bikers performed stunts while setting off firecrackers, which also forced the police to book the cases against ten bikers who were performing stunts with firecrackers strapped to their bikes. The police also seized their bikes and issued warnings about stricter consequences for such reckless behaviour.

Recently, an auto-rickshaw driver also performed reckless stunts and created a disturbance on the road. The video was shared on October 24 by user ‘Raju Auto Driver Hyderabad’ on YouTube, raising significant safety concerns. Such cases have been reported earlier, including a young boy wearing a burqa riding a bike and harassing girls/women on roads, and another was booked for filming on throwing currency notes in the middle of a busy road. Also, a youth was held for making Instagram reels in the Bandlaguda police station, and cases were booked against them with relevant sections.

The observers said that the creators are making videos by performing rash and reckless stunts like standing on bikes, performing wheelies, and skidding on roads, putting their and others lives at risk. “To control this and save the lives of others, the police must apprehend and counsel them over safe riding on roads. Their parents must know what kind of thrills their children do in the name of social media content. They must also counsel with the reliable influencers on making videos on social media instead of performing such reckless stunts for viewership,” said Asif Hussain Sohail, an observer.