TTPS warns students over dangerous online road challenge

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) is warn­ing stu­dents that they will face the full ex­tent of the law if they par­tic­i­pate in a dan­ger­ous on­line chal­lenge that in­volves sit­ting in the path of on­com­ing ve­hi­cles be­fore run­ning away at the last mo­ment.

De­scrib­ing the trend as reck­less and life-threat­en­ing, the TTPS said: “Let us be clear: this be­hav­iour is reck­less, it is dan­ger­ous, and it will not be tol­er­at­ed.”

In a state­ment is­sued on Sat­ur­day, the po­lice warned that “a child sit­ting in the path of a mov­ing ve­hi­cle is one mo­ment away from tragedy.”

“A dri­ver who is forced to swerve or brake sud­den­ly may lose con­trol, putting the child, the dri­ver, pas­sen­gers, pedes­tri­ans and oth­er road users at grave risk of se­ri­ous in­jury or death,” the TTPS added.

Em­pha­sis­ing the se­ri­ous­ness of the is­sue, the TTPS said ac­tive in­ves­ti­ga­tions are un­der­way and vowed to “take all ap­pro­pri­ate ac­tion un­der the law against any­one found to be en­gag­ing in, en­cour­ag­ing, record­ing or pro­mot­ing this con­duct.”

Videos of the in­ci­dents are of­ten record­ed by the stu­dents and shared on so­cial me­dia. How­ev­er, mem­bers of the pub­lic have al­so been record­ing the ac­tiv­i­ty. In one of the videos record­ed by a home-own­er in St James and shared on so­cial me­dia on Sep­tem­ber 22, sev­er­al male stu­dents were cap­tured run­ning out in­to the mid­dle of the road, fol­low­ing which sev­er­al sat down, fac­ing on­com­ing mo­torists.

The group then wait­ed un­til a car was about two feet away or less from them, be­fore they ran off to the side, caus­ing the dri­ver to swerve.

The po­lice stressed that no so­cial me­dia trend is worth risk­ing a life.

“No trend, no dare and no so­cial me­dia video is worth a life,” the re­lease stat­ed.

The TTPS al­so re­mind­ed par­ents and guardians that re­spon­si­bil­i­ty be­gins at home and urged them to speak to their chil­dren about the dan­gers of par­tic­i­pat­ing in such ac­tiv­i­ties.

Par­ents were en­cour­aged to know where their chil­dren are be­fore and af­ter school, mon­i­tor their on­line ac­tiv­i­ty for con­tent pro­mot­ing these chal­lenges, and make it clear that such be­hav­iour is un­ac­cept­able and car­ries con­se­quences.

School ad­min­is­tra­tors, teach­ers and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers were al­so urged to ad­dress the mat­ter di­rect­ly with stu­dents.

Mo­torists were ad­vised to ex­er­cise height­ened cau­tion in and around schools and res­i­den­tial com­mu­ni­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing school drop-off and dis­missal pe­ri­ods.

The TTPS is ask­ing any­one with in­for­ma­tion about these in­ci­dents, or those record­ing and shar­ing re­lat­ed con­tent on­line, to con­tact the near­est po­lice sta­tion or call 999, 555 or 800-TIPS.

As­sur­ing the pub­lic that all re­ports will be treat­ed in the strictest con­fi­dence, the TTPS said it will not stand by while chil­dren put their lives at risk.

“Pro­tect them. Talk to them. Act now.”