The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Pedestrians more prone to accidents

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Sunday, Jan 17, 2010
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Pedestrians more prone to accidents

Marri Ramu

Lack of footpaths, FOBs and zebra crossings leading to many deaths

Till November 2009, 336 pedestrians got killed in 938 road accidents
With 295 deaths, two-wheeler riders stand next in fatalities

HYDERABAD: People tend to believe that persons travelling in or driving vehicles run the risk of getting injured or dying in road accidents. But statistics indicate that pedestrians are more prone to road accidents, compared to other victims like two-wheeler riders, in Cyberabad Commissionerate jurisdiction.

Till November end in 2009, 336 pedestrians got killed in 938 road accidents suggesting that not only driving, but also walking on or crossing roads in Cyberabad is dangerous. The reasons are obvious. Three national and five State highways pass through Cyberabad for long distances, but there are no foot-over-bridges for pedestrians to cross the roads.

Encroachments

Footpaths are completely absent at some places. At other places like the bustling Dilsukhnagar or Kukatpally, hawkers and petty vendors occupy every inch of them forcing people to walk on the road bumping against speeding vehicles. Places were identified for construction of FOBs. “Our role is to assist the civic authorities in identifying right places. The construction part is their responsibility,” Cyberabad traffic police officials maintain.

They claim that plans for building subways at important junctions were mooted but the authorities concerned are yet to react.

Confusion

“Let them first arrange zebra crossings at all important intersections if funds are not available to build FOBs and sub-ways,” demands Venkateswar Reddy of Nagole in L.B. Nagar.

Confused with the maddening traffic, people run across the road to reach the other end as there are no zebra crossings, only to get hit by speeding vehicles, he says. Discouraging pedestrians from crossing the road everywhere by raising the height of the median and constructing sufficient number of FOBs or subways is one solution, the traffic police feel. With 295 deaths, two-wheeler riders are the second category of victims more susceptible to fatal accidents. Pedestrians and two-wheeler riders constitute 67.27 per cent of the fatal accident victims. Not wearing helmet, drunken driving, over-speeding, bad road engineering and failure to follow basic road usage rules are cited to be the main factors resulting in more number of two-wheeler rider deaths. A weird fact is that 110 persons driving vehicles died due to skidding on roads or hitting dividers, trees and parked vehicles.

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