Cambodian teenagers with time and a moto on their hands are candidates for the potentially fatal "moto-flyer" craze.
'Flying', the police explain, is essentially riding at high speed and pulling stunts
such as 'wheelies'.
Keo Pisa is one young 'flyer'. In a street near Hun Sen Park, Pisa struts like a
film hero. With no protective outfit and helmet, he guns the bike's engine, then
flies the front wheel higher. Fifty meters down the road he drops back on to both
wheels.
"I feel so proud when I fly my motorbike, because most people do not think I
could do an unusual stunt like this. It is great fun," he said.
His friends may enjoy it, but the police are less impressed. Flying your motorbike
in traffic is illegal, they say, and those who are caught will be punished. However,
catching them is difficult: most of the bikers simply drive too fast.
Sometimes, though, the police are quicker: three months ago, officers under Khan
Prampi Makara police commissioner Yim Simony caught a group of 10 motorbike flyers
near the Olympic stadium. He recorded their plate numbers and warned them against
doing so again.
"Those teenagers are playing with death," he says. "They cause fatal
accidents to innocent people when they fly their motorbikes, sometimes at speeds
of between 60 and 70 kilometers an hour."
He said that in most accidents it was innocent people who were killed - the riders
generally came off unscathed.
Simony's words are echoed by Dei Mao, a Phnom Penh municipal traffic policeman. He
told the Post that in May this year a 20-year-old flyer, Rattana, caused a fatal
accident along Sothearos Boulevard south of the National Assembly.
Mao says that Rattana lost control when flying the front wheel of his motorbike.
It landed on the head of a passing motorist and killed him instantly. Rattana was
arrested.
Official fines for exceeding the speed limit are hardly a deterrent. Going faster
than the official 40 kilometers an hour limit in Phnom Penh will earn the offender
a fine of only 1,500 riel. Some flyers, however, say they have been fined as much
as $50.
Pisa, a 20-year-old high school dropout, said it took him only three months to attain
the skills that would land less talented riders in hospital. He says he has no fear.
Pisa's friends taught him how to fly. Since he started three months ago, Pisa has
had five accidents, but says that his injuries will not discourage him from carrying
on.
The other side to flying - other than looking good in front of your friends - is
the gambling that sometimes goes with it. Pisa said some of his friends bet from
$10 to $30 on a flying race. The winner is the one who gets his bike furthest down
the road without falling off. Victory and cash are the rewards, he says, as well
as gaining the admiration of others.
One novice flyer, 19-year-old Pan Sopheak, gained some scars for his troubles when
he came off his bike in a flying race.
"I can handle it. In spite of the possibility of more accidents, I will still
do it," he says.
Concerned at the rising number of teenage flyers, the city's traffic police in collaboration
with NGOs produced a documentary of short stories about traffic rules earlier this
year. The stories were broadcast on Cambodian TV in a bid to educate Cambodia's young
flyers.
Mr El Samneang, chief of Phnom Penh Municipal traffic police and who is in charge
of the traffic education program, says he produced the stories for residents, and
in particular the city's youth, to teach them to respect traffic law and avoid possible
accidents.
Samneang says :"If you gamble on a video game motorbike race, you will lose
only your money, but if you gamble on your motorbike flying in the street, you may
lose your life."
Some young flyers say that the program made them stop, but it seems there are plenty
more who will take their place.
