Seeing underage children illegally riding motorcycles is unfortunately a daily occurrence in many parts of Indonesia, where a combination of parental neglect and lack of punishment by the police allow the dangerous practice to remain widespread.
But even by the laxest of Indonesian standards, the little boy in this video is way too young to be riding a motorcycle (even of the mini toy-like variety) along a major road, not even mentioning the fact that he has a similarly aged passenger along for the ride. This is one underage motorist even the cops in the above viral clip know they have to do something about, much to the little rider’s terrified confusion.
The incident took place in the city of Sampang, East Java, last Wednesday. It begins with 5-year-old rider Restu and his friend getting stopped in front of a police checkpoint by the cops who are clearly surprised to see such a little boy riding a mini-motorcycle on the major road of Jalan Trunojoyo.
The kindergarten student tells the police he is on his way to visit her cousin’s house.
“You need to be wearing helmets,” says one policeman.
“My friend back there too? I am wear this helmet,” replies Restu innocently .
“Yes, you both need to wear helmets,” the officer says.
The policemen say they’ll escort Restu and his friend home and ask him where he lives. Restu answers but looks scared, and one of the officers invites him come have a snack first.
But the kindergartener asks, with a face full of worry, “Then where will we go? Then my bike will be taken?”
One officer says reassuringly, “Don’t worry, we don’t want to take your bike”.
But Restu isn’t buying it. He begins to wail saying, “What if I have to buy another bike? I don’t have any moooooney!”
Eventually the cops were able to convince Restu that his precious mini-motorcycle was safe and allow him to ride back to his house while they escort him.
According to the police, Restu lives with his grandfather and grandmother as his parents work in another city. They said his grandparents had been looking for him as the 5-year-old usually only rode his motorcycle around their yard.
As it turns out, some other members of Restu’s family, including his father, are involved in motorcycle racing, which is perhaps why the 5-year-old felt he was already ready to hit the streets. The police asked his grandparents to please keep a closer eye on him but kept their promise to let Restu keep the bike.
Cute though this incident may have been, underage driving is a serious problem here in Indonesia, with far too many children driving themselves and others to school illegally on motorcycles each and every day while police generally look the other way.
Even when they do stop underage motorists, there’s not much police can do to punish them since the law law is limited in how it can punish juvenile crimes (this is perhaps best illustrated by the case of popstar-turned-politician Ahmad Dhani’s son, who illegally drove a car when he was just 13 and killed 7 people in a horrific accident but went completely unpunished, as did his father who gave him the sports car he was driving).
Two years ago, a woman started an online petition to jail parents who let their underage children drive, after a kid on a motorcycle killed a 3-year-old boy in an accident. Though the petition has garnered a great deal of support, no such law has been passed.
