Pedestrians make up 30% of road accident victims in city

Hyderabad: Pedestrians amount to close to 30% of the victims of road accidents in the city. Experts say a substantial amount of pedestrian accidents occur on the accident-prone metro corridor on NH-65 road, due to lack of pedestrian infrastructure.
Traffic cops in the recent past have put up barricades to prevent pedestrians from crossing the corridor on NH-65 road and to reduce the number of accidents on the stretch.A quick round of the stretch from Moosapet metro station to Miyapur metro station via NH-65 revealed pedestrians often dodge these barricades to make their way to cross the road. “The stretch is accident-prone, we see no less than five accidents every month, both fatal and non-fatal accidents. In most cases, victims escape with minor injuries,” said Chandra Sekhar, ACP (traffic) Cyberabad. The officer says pedestrians and two-wheelers are most of the victims of accidents.
“Even after putting barricades on junctions, pedestrians are seen jaywalking and carelessly crossing roads. The median height is close to 3 feet, people dodge and cross the road easily even after installation of the barricades,” said a traffic cop on duty. Traffic police had recently put up a green sheet between JNTU and KPHB metro station stretch to prevent people from crossing the road through the median on the highway, however, the result was hardly fruitful. “We have earlier tried fencing the median, but people would dodge that as well,” said the officer.
Road safety experts said the infrastructure is to blame. “The metro median and footpath parallel of the NH-65 corridor has been used for beautification instead of making it pedestrian-friendly, including the foot-over-bridges (FOB),” said Vinod Kumar Kanumala, founder of Indian Federation of Road Safety. He said if the height of the median if increased, it will prevent pedestrians from crossing the road. “Only limited openings can be made to cross the highway through medians, with proper zebra crossings in place. FOBs have to be made pedestrian-friendly with lift or escalators,” he added.
Pedestrians hardly use FOBs, traffic cops said and added jaywalking causes maximum number of accidents. “In Miyapur junction, railings were constructed on the medians in collaboration with a private organisation, reducing accidents,” said the ACP.