Pedestrians not in cops’ priority

Pedestrian deaths stand second in road accidents. In the last three years 2003 pedestrians lost their lives. Rash driving, vanishing footpaths and lack of zebra crossings are prime reasons for pedestrian deaths.

There is no safety for pedestrians in the city; the stats with the traffic police say the same. Whenever there is an accident it’s the pedestrians who get injured. Many say that these are happening because there are no proper measures for pedestrian safety.

Traffic police of both the commissionerates anlaysed the accidents that took place from 2010 to 2013 (August) and found that every year there are more than 5000 accidents in the city. More accidents are happening in Cyberabad commissionerate as it has more number of national highways. Two wheelers succumb to death in most case followed by pedestrians. Over the period of three and half years, the city saw 2003 pedestrians lose their lives to road accidents.

If one look into the reasons behind the accidents and deaths of the pedestrians, they will be akin to ‘causes for Karna’s death’. Not all the fingers can be pointed out towards rash driving, there are more variables attached to it. There are no proper zebra crossings at many places in the city, even though they are in place; visibility of them in night is always a question. GHMC few years earlier have come up with Foot Over Bridges (FOB) in busy junctions in the city to facilitate pedestrian crossing. But these were removed over the period of time to felicitate Metro Rail works.

GHMC came up with an ambitious project of starting Pelican crossing system in 30 busiest places in the city. But not many people do have awareness of it. Few even do blame pedestrians for the accidents. “Most pedestrians do think that traffic rules are for motorists and they can go jaywalk, this is what causing their lives,” said a traffic cop.

Dwindling of footpaths in the city is also believed to be one of the reasons. Most footpaths are encroached by hawkers. There was a proposal to construct 2-foot-wide footpaths in busiest junctions of the city, with barricading and opening at junctions to facilitate pedestrian commuting. Sadly, these proposals are gathering dust in GHMC’s cupboards.

Suresh Babu, founder of Vaada Foundation that works for pedestrian safety, said, “There are no proper measures for pedestrians in the city as while framing the rules pedestrians are always considered less or given least importance. Pelican crossing, if it comes in all the proposed places, may help in decreasing deaths of pedestrians”.

Kanthimati Kannan, founder, Right to Walk Foundation was infuriated that the pedestrians are not given due importance while considering traffic. She laughed at the proposal of having 2-feet-wide barricaded footpaths. “I see barricaded footpaths at Ravindra Bharathi, Masab Tank and JNTU; they are so narrow that one has to do march past not walk. The GHMC is supposed to be custodian of footpaths, but their main office doesn’t have any footpaths. For all the authorities concerned traffic means motorists not pedestrians. Their doctor might have suggested, “not to walk as it is vulnerable to death.”