Reining in our killer roads

Accidents claimed the lives of 7,070 Bengalureans between 2007 and 2015. Last year alone, the casualties touched 700. Is there no end to these killings triggered by a mix of negligence, apathy and recklessness?

Seventeen-year-old college girl Poornima Sundar shouldn’t have died. But barely a week after that numbing accident under a BMTC bus, the shock and horror sparked by her death is a distant memory. In a city where accidents are a daily reality, where reckless driving has taken on monstrous proportions, should this raise an eyebrow at all?

No, if you take one look at this chilling statistic: The Bengaluru traffic police have booked a staggering 46,000 cases against BMTC drivers. Even if fatalities have reduced, the number of traffic violations across all motorist categories continue to skyrocket. Desperate to arrest this defiant spiral, the police sent 15,280 driving licences for suspension. The motorists had broken the law for the third time, every violation the trigger for a potential accident!

Last year, 729 Bengalureans lost their lives in road accidents. A much higher 4,098 people were injured, some disabled for life! By September 30 this year, the fatality count has already touched 556. Yes, it is a reduction from the 981 accidental deaths recorded in 2007. But a big question looms large: Why did the system allow the killing of 7,070 people between 2007 and 2015? Couldn’t they have been all alive had Bengaluru cared?

Struggling to manage the City’s hugely unregulated vehicular growth, the city traffic police are obviously in an unenviable position. It is a tough choice, when roads are themselves an invitation to disaster. Dangerously pot-holed, poorly lit and ill-maintained, accidents happen by design. Weather conditions complicate it even further.

Reckless driving turns this deadly chaos deadlier. “Driver negligence is a major cause for accidents. Eight-five per cent of cases are linked to poor driving,” informs Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic, M A Saleem.

Speed-breaking kills

High vehicular density reduces speeds and could thus potentially reduce fatal, high-speed collisions. But Bengaluru is not a black and white city with clearly demarcated fast and slow lanes. High-speed roads with flyovers often end in gridlocked lanes. Unscientific, unmarked road humps in narrow, slow lanes often trigger accidents. Signal-free roads are notoriously pedestrian-unfriendly.

Desperate to cross without skywalks, walkers are often knocked down with impunity.

Vehicle speeds go up dramatically on the arterial roads and the Outer Ring Road. To curb the rising fatalities caused by trucks on the Ring Road, the police have introduced 13 speed interceptors. Saleem says 10 more will be added on the Ring Road and the elevated Hosur Road and Tumakuru Road.

Buses and trucks, by their sheer size, end up amplifying accidental deaths and injuries. While trucks are a law onto themselves, it is the supposedly ‘trained’ drivers of government-owned corporations such as BMTC who have put the traffic police in a fix. Sources say, the Transport Corporation’s move to incentivise drivers and conductors who get more passengers has led to more traffic violations.

Here’s one indication of this: Drivers stop wherever and whenever a passenger wants. This has sparked a huge rise in wrong parking cases, an indirect trigger for more violations and accidents. Of the 46,834 cases booked against BMTC buses in 2015 upto September, a whopping 26,555 were linked to wrong parking! Jumping traffic signal was the cause for 12,504 cases.

Citizen law-enforcers

Yet, despite an apparent rise in enforcement stategies, violations continue. Showing off their new toys of speed, people break rules in abandon. Why can’t police take citizens’ help in law enforcement by going beyond the traffic warden exercise? Raising this question, Muralidhar Rao from Praja-RAAG reiterates his suggestion for “citizen martials.”

These martials could identify a traffic violator on the road, offer advice and if he/she does not relent, the picture of the violation could be shared with the traffic police. If the martial’s authority is questioned, he could produce a badge issued by the police. The martials could be nominated by citizens themselves.

“This could help keep a watch on violations. I am sure 80 per cent of citizens will eventually follow the rules this ways,” says Rao.

Public Eye

On their part, the police had introduced the Public Eye initiative, letting road-users themselves to shoot pictures of violations and share them. Saleem explains: “We have booked 33,000 cases through this project. We get complaints through social media too, although some of them are minor.”

Pedestrians remain the section most vulnerable to accidents. Since footpaths are often of poor quality and encroached by flagposts of political and cultural outfits, pedestrians are forced to walk on the roads. Since most motorists don’t stick to lane discipline, the walkers become sitting ducks. The few skywalks that are there are mostly poorly located, catering only to advertising concerns. The ones without escalators are clearly inaccessible to senior citizens.

Despite the odds, is there one sure-shot way of preventing accidents? It is a tough call indeed. But Saleem has one suggestion that just might make a small impact: “If people start 10 minutes early for work or their destination, they end up being calm and composed. They will then follow all the rules and reach their place in time.” But in a city that adds an estimated 1,000 vehicles a day, will 10 minutes be early enough?