A number of pedestrians being run over recently in accidents in Dehradun have again brought to the fore the vulnerability of the pedestrians in the city roads with what are left as footpaths remaining encroached and police doing nothing to regulate pedestrian traffic.
With the volume of traffic rising by leaps and bounds, the road spaces are proving insufficient to bear it and add to it the encroachment of the roads, the precarious picture for the pedestrians is complete. Aside from the traders and residents encroaching parts of the roads with impunity, piles of garbage left to accumulate on the sides of some roads are making the pedestrians all the more vulnerable to being run over. “Besides, underage riding/ driving continuing dangerously, we are facing risk every moment we walk. If we turn off our guard even for a moment we run the risk of being run over. Besides, garbage being dumped on the stretch known as laxmi Road and many others are increasing the risk of us being run over,” said an elderly citizen Suresh Negi from Curzon Road in Dalanwala.
A few days ago, two women were run over and killed when they were crossing EC Road near Bharat Heart Hospital in Dehradun when a two-wheeler knocked them down. The accused was a teenager Ankit, resident of Purola, Uttarkashi and a student of a Mussoorie- based college. later, it was found that he was riding another’s two-wheeler sans any license.
This is just one of the innumerable instances happening in the city at regular intervals, taking toll of lives of the pedestrians. “It is sad that despite the world devising ways to make the commuters respect the pedestrians, police here are failing even to execute the rules they are mandated to enforce,” said a homemaker Meenakshi Juyal from Salawala.
Regrettably, whenever an accident occurs thanks to encroached roads, civic body, police and administrative officials tend to indulge in the pass the buck game, passing the responsibility of freeing the roads from encroachments to others. “We are convinced that lack of coordination among the three wings is what is leading us to be crushed under the speeding wheels of the vehicles,” said another senior citizen.
Ramesh, a resident of Raipur, said that there is no footpath left for the pedestrians on Raipur Road. “Footpaths along the roads are encroached upon by the local traders. Speeding cars often pounce upon us,” he said.
Urmila, a resident of Adarsh Vihar, regretted that the roads here are not meant for the pedestrians. “We fear that we would be run over even when we go to our local shops to buy essentials. They often are reckless while driving or riding. There is no traffic police in sight to restrain them or to punish them when they are making mockery of the traffic rules,” she added.
Pramod, a resident of Jogiwala, said that despite red light being installed at Clock Tower to regulate traffic, it is not functioning most of the times though police are deployed there.
Statistics are alarming. On an average, one or two road accidents are being reported daily from some parts of Dehradun district. “All the three wings of the administration- police, civic body and district administration- should work in perfect coordination to free the encroached roads and to remove the garbage piles left accumulating on the roadsides and also to effectively control rash and drunk driving and underage driving/riding by meting out deterrent punishment to the violators of the traffic rules,” said an observer.