Pedestrians unsafe on Hyderabad roads

Hyderabad: The most vulnerable people on the city’s roads in the outskirts are pedestrians. As per police records around 272 pedestrians were either killed or critically injured on the outskirts and in the IT corridor till August.

Most of the accidents occurred while the victims were crossing roads. Lack of pedestrian crossings and traffic management at pedestrian crossings and the aggressive attitude of motorists towards pedestrians are the main reasons for the mishaps, experts said.

According to data released by the Cyberabad traffic police pedestrian casualties on roads have increased. The data says that at least three pedestrians get hit by vehicles every day. Most of the victims either die or are injured seriously.

As per the data, the number of deaths of pedestrians is three times higher than deaths among any other category of road users. The absence of pedestrian crossings is a major problem on the outskirts. Most pedestrians cross roads when traffic is moving and no motorist stops for pedestrians.  

“Hyderabad probably has the worst pedestrian infrastructure. Cities like Mumbai and New Delhi have better infrastructure for pedestrians. In most areas of our city pedestrians have to walk on the road due to the absence of footpaths. They cannot cross the road without fearing for life,” said road safety expert and founder of the Indian Federation of Road Safety, Vinod Kumar Kanumalla.   

Experts say the new government’s aim to build the city as per global standards will be a failure if authorities ignore footpaths, zebra crossings and foot over bridges. “We have very less footpaths. Most of them are occupied by hawkers, transformers, poles and other things. There are usable footpaths only in posh areas like Banjara Hills and Jubilee hills. This is the biggest challenge for the city’s administration,” said Mr Kumjar.

Road safety experts say the motorists of Hyderabad have no regard for pedestrians and unless it changes deaths would continue to occur.