Safety hazard: ‘Every month at least three accidents take place on Northern Bypass’

With no barrier between two major highways, the road has become a deathtrap

KARACHI: Two women and a man were killed in a head-on collision between a motorcycle and a trawler on the Northern Bypass on Friday but this is not the first accident to have claimed lives there.

The accident took place at Mawach Morr when a speeding motorcycle overtook a dumper from the right and hit the trawler, which was coming from Shershah.

The motorcyle came from the Hub River Road directly onto the Northern Bypass and tried to overtake the dumper, which resulted in a fatal collision with a heavy trawler, explained Road Traffic Injury Research and Prevention Centre's accident investigation officer, Irfan Saleem. He said that all three passengers were crushed in the collision.



According to Saleem, accidents are common on the Northern Bypass, as two-way heavy traffic plies there. "The Hub River Road and Northern Bypass are parallel to each other, without any road shoulder," he told The Express Tribune. He added that the Hub River Road is at a lower height than the Northern Bypass and, since there is no barrier separating the two roads, motorcycles and cars come directly onto the Northern Bypass from the Hub River Road, which results in dreadful accidents, most of them fatal.

"Every month at least three road accidents take place there," he pointed out, adding that initially, when the Northern Bypass was constructed, a double road was approved. However, he said that the government ended up constructing a 22-foot-wide single road, where two way traffic plies without any median or green belt.

"Since the Hub River Road is not in a good condition, the cars and motorcycles prefer to go through the Northern Bypass," Saleem pointed out, adding that most of the time, in order to avoid the rush on the Hub River Road, the traffic diverts without warning onto the Northern Bypass.

"I have literally seen pillion riders slipping backward, when they try to move their motorcycle onto the Northern Bypass from the Hub River Road," he said, adding that the traffic police also fail to perform their duties on the Northern Bypass.

District West SP for traffic, Ehsan Malik, and district West deputy commissioner, Muhammad Ali Shah, did not respond despite repeated calls for their comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2015.