Karachi's killing pits

The Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) recently released harrowing statistics regarding road accident victims in Karachi that serve as a grim indictment of the state of road safety in the city. With over 15,000 accident victims brought to a single healthcare facility in a single year - 800 of whom losing their lives - the city is trapped in a cycle of systemic carnage that has become an accepted tax on urban existence.

The state of road infrastructure as well as public awareness indicates that these are not merely 'unfortunate accidents'. These accidents are the cumulative result of administrative neglect, mismanagement and public apathy which is turning the city's roads into killing pits. When 800 lives are lost at a single hospital, it is a sure sign of a catastrophe that is eroding citizens' basic right to safe passage. The government must move beyond mere surveillance to enforce uncompromising accountability.

Most victims of these accidents are young men, who are often the sole breadwinners for their families and whose deaths or even permanent disabilities trigger a domino effect of generational poverty. By failing to regulate our roads, we are consequently also losing the very backbone of our labour force and the future potential of our youth.

And while the government must take immediate action to improve the road situation in the city, citizens must also realise that without their input and their strict adherence to the law, better infrastructure will merely be able to make a dent in the larger problem. Our habits of taking shorter yet illegal routes, cutting off other vehicles, violating traffic signals and driving against the traffic must be replaced with a better sense of safety and security. Because these cumulative actions, coupled with unsafe roads, ultimately lay the groundwork for tragic accidents and lost lives.