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Chennai
Hyderabad
Living dangerously
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Road accidents continue unabated even as the Hyderabad Traffic Police take up new measures to deal with the problem, writes USHA RAMAN
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IN HYDERABAD, life on the street is hard. Don't get me wrong - we don't have gangs of gun-brandishing criminals rampaging our neighbourhoods. But with nearly 3,427 road accidents reported in 2003, and 451 of those ending in fatalities (and perhaps a larger number resulting in significant disability), driving on our roads has become an open invitation to disaster. A disaster that seems remote until it hits you hard in the heart when it happens to a friend, a colleague, or a family member.
Take the case of Venkatagiri Mohan, a 28-year-old software engineer who was hit by a jeep driven at high speed on the wrong side of the road, as he was driving to work via Moosarambagh cross roads. He died soon after being taken to the hospital with a head injury. Or the young couple hit by a van with no headlights, as they made their way home from a dinner party near Greenlands. They escaped with sixteen 16 stitches and several bruises, but could not go back to work for a few weeks. Or the children knocked over by speeding motorists who refuse to slow down at pedestrian crossings or stop for red lights. And the autorickshaw that is hit by a bus as the driver makes a u-turn at the base of the flyover, disregarding the instructions printed clearly on a white and red sign that he swings past.
The traffic problems in Hyderabad have multiple causes. Badly planned, narrow roads, parking spilling on to the street from the mushrooming business and commercial complexes, poorly manned junctions, and absolute disregard for the rules among drivers.
"In the last few years, the level of prosperity has increased tremendously in our city, and there are more vehicles on the road," says K. Srinivas Reddy, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic). "The infrastructure in terms of roads has just not kept up with this."
Anyone who drives or walks, or takes public transport knows this first hand. There is a visible increase in traffic, it takes longer to get to places, and traffic jams are almost a daily event. "In spite of the flyovers, the congestion has not at all decreased," says Murali Mohan, whose brother died in a road mishap two years ago. "And in other areas, like RTC crossroads, the roads need to be widened much more to accommodate the huge increase in vehicles." Mohan suggests `fool proof' road dividers that are at least two feet high to deter people from driving on the wrong side of the road or crossing the yellow line.
Srinivas Reddy agrees that the flyovers have not really eased the congestion, except for coming in handy "when there is VIP movement or a procession of some sort." "There is no such thing as integrated town planning," he continues, bemoaning the fact that every other day permission is granted for a new multiplex, with no consideration given to parking. Even when roads are widened, much of the space is taken up by illegally parked vehicles, "And the end result is that there is congestion on the roads."
With more private vehicles on the road competing for space and speed with RTC buses, autorickshaws, tempos and seven-seaters, the constables at junctions have a harder time managing movement at busy intersections like Khairatabad. "Even with three traffic cops at such a junction, we cannot prevent all violations that might take place as there are five streams of vehicles!" says Srinivas Reddy.
"Increasing levels of pollution, rudeness from the public, intense summer heat. These are all things a traffic policeman has to deal with. It is the hardest job in the force," says Srinivas Reddy, noting the fact that several policemen have even been knocked over on the road. All this, says Reddy, is cause enough for our own version of road rage.
In the United States, a recent study estimates that automobile accidents claim the lives of nearly 117 people every day, making this the leading cause of death in that country. With the rate of growth that India - and particularly fast-growing cities like Hyderabad - are experiencing, it is likely that road accidents (now termed "road traffic crashes" to remove the notion that these incidents occur by chance and are therefore not preventable) will grow in number and intensity, unless there is a change in the way things are. While the high numbers in the United States reflect a certain kind of traffic violator (largely drunken drivers and speeding teenagers), the fatalities in Hyderabad have to do with non-compliance with the simplest of traffic regulations from stopping on red to yielding to pedestrians to overtaking from the left, to driving on the wrong side of the road. An analysis of traffic violations based on police records over the past three years, done by Dr Rakhi Dandona and a team from the Administrative Staff College of India, found that 964,275 such traffic violations were registered in 2003, nearly 50 per cent more than the 646,161 registered in 2001. Their study shows that of the 451people, who died on the road in Hyderabad last year, 390 (86.5%) were males and 308 (68.3%) were between 16-49 years of age. "It's the young people, those who have the most number of productive years left, often people who are the sole earners for their families," explains Dr Rakhi Dandona.
The Hyderabad Traffic Police have taken a three-pronged strategy to deal with the traffic problems. The first relates to enforcement of rules, with a greater insistence on booking complaints and issuing challans for moving violations.
But even so, "we feel that we have not been able to focus enforcement in the really congested areas," rues Srinivas Reddy. But the upshot is that the number of violations registered has gone up about one and a half times.
The second area of focus is education, of both the police and the public. "Policemen have to be empowered through training to take a tough stand on violators," says Reddy. "But it's also important that the public does its share to prevent accidents." "Hyderabadis are just not interested in following the rules," notes Srinivas Reddy. "So public education becomes a very important part of our strategy in improving traffic conditions."
"But this is just symptomatic of our general attitude as a people," says Upendran, a Hyderabadi who battles the traffic every day. "We don't stand in queues, we don't respect public spaces, and so, we don't follow traffic rules!"
Srinivas Reddy agrees that public apathy is the single biggest obstacle to making our roads safer. "People must understand that they are doing this for their own safety, for the safety of their families." Occasions such as Traffic Awareness Week and Road Safety Day provide an opportunity for the police to remind the public about the importance of following the rules. The strategy is to catch them young, with traffic education programmes in schools and colleges. A new, fully equipped Traffic Awareness Park in the Jawahar Bal Bhavan, Public Gardens, allows children to learn about traffic rules.
The third prong of the strategy is to tackle regulation issues. This is not just about channelling traffic, but regulating it in a scientific manner. The Hyderabad Police recently recruited nearly 400 Home Guards to augment the inadequate traffic police force. But here too, public cooperation becomes very important. The Traffic Warden Scheme initiated by the Traffic Police invites members of the public to get involved in traffic regulation, particularly in their neighbourhoods or around the schools where their children study. "This scheme has been a big success in Chennai," says Srinivas Reddy. "But we have had no takers yet in Hyderabad."
The partnership of an interested and aware citizenry is absolutely essential to making our roads safer. "There's no point in blaming the system," says Dr. Dandona. "Each of us has to take responsibility for our own behaviour on the roads, by following the rules." While that may not prevent us from becoming the victims of the next traffic violator, it will at least keep us from becoming dangerous to others.
Photo: P.V. Sivakumar
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