Karachi’s roads serve up recipe for traffic disasters

Every day, at least one person dies in a road crash.

KARACHI:

Karachi’s traffic is fast and impatient. Figures of the biannual study by the Road Traffic Injury and Prevention Center (RTIR & PC) of Jinnah Postgraduate Centre (JPMC) showed that every single day, at least one person dies on the road in this city, and on an average some 83 people are wounded daily. 

Danger zones

The RTIR & PC monitors the casualties from road accidents at five hospitals including JPMC, Agha Khan, Civil Hospital, Abbasi Shaheed and Liaquat National Hospital.



According to their research, streets in Karachi have become extremely dangerous for motorcyclists, pedestrians and for passengers of public buses. “Shahrah-e-Faisal has proved to be the most fatal road, followed by the Korangi industrial Area street, Shahrah-e-Orangi and Mauripur Road,” commented the head of RTIR & PC Dr Juma Khan. 

Why so many accidents?

Dr Khan says the installation of too many sign boards, lack of knowledge about traffic by-laws, easily acquired driving licenses, inefficient public transport and no enforcement of the law are the main causes behind the accidents.

“Errors in a driver’s judgment, distraction, visual obstruction, physical limitations or the condition of roads and vehicles also cause these accidents,” he said.



“Last year, we recorded 20,000 motorcyclist injuries,” he added.

“The second largest victims of road accidents are pedestrians due to encroachment on footpaths, lack of pedestrian bridges and erasing of zebra crossings.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2015.