The number of walkers killed on India’s roads has nearly doubled in four years. What can be done to reduce that?
According to statistics released by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the number of pedestrians killed on India’s roads climbed from 12,330 in 2014 to 22,656 in 2018 — an increase of 84 per cent in just four years. Many things can be extrapolated from these numbers. The first, of course, is the dramatic expansion in the country’s road network. The other quite obviously is the total lack of pedestrian safety in the country. There are no pavements or sidewalks left beyond central Delhi and select other Government zones in other cities, which have not been occupied by hawkers and parked cars. There are a few crosswalks or an alternative method to cross major thoroughfares. The traffic police and transport authorities, in their desperation to make traffic flows smoother, have also done little to chalk out a plan for pedestrians, who come last in their scheme of things.
However, blaming the authorities and the rash driving habits of Indian drivers is a valid criticism. While studying pedestrian deaths, there should be far more planning to ensure their safety, including in vehicle and road design. Pedestrians themselves should share a lot of the blame. Even when there are overpasses, underpasses and traffic lights to cross roads safely, they blithely ignore these and cross the roads in the face of oncoming traffic just sticking their hands out. With little or no understanding about how much faster vehicles have become, pedestrians often take their lives into their own hands. Crossing a road, even at a traffic light in one’s favour while staring down at a phone, is downright dangerous. Driving down any of the new high-speed expressways, you will find pedestrians without a care in the world crossing the road while cars zoom by at speeds well over 100 km per hour. With such blatant disregard of road use and behaviour, no matter what is done, pedestrians will still die. And the number of deaths can easily be brought down. One method is to teach schoolchildren the basics of road safety, both as pedestrians and drivers. The other is to build proper methods for people to cross the roads and stop encroaching them. India’s roads are horribly bloody as it is and far too many people die on our roads every single day. In any another country this would be a national emergency. In India, this is barely given a second thought. That needs to change urgently.