manoj

With the young accounting for the majority of the over 1000 deaths on the roads of Hyderabad, it is time for alarm bells to start ringing

Zipping through the city’s open roads late in the night, a few pegs down and feeling light, enjoying the soothing breeze after a long day at college or work and just when the friend on the pillion compliments the ride as “cool” comes the fatal crash.

“Two dead in a road accident” could be a routine news report headline but now such isolated road accident cases have been put together to conclude that road traffic accidents are now the most likely cause of death of those aged 15 to 19 years.

The concern of the loss of young lives on the road is clearly global (and not just Hyderabadi) with the United Nations kick starting its first Global Road Safety Week on Monday, April 23, “dedicated to young road users”. The United Nations in its message for the week notes that road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people aged 10 to 24 worldwide, a statistic reflected most tellingly in Hyderabad.

Road accidents leading to death in the city are more routine than rare. The first 23 days of April alone have witnessed as many as 21 deaths in the twin cities, over 80 per cent of the victims in their late teens or in their 20’s.

Traffic police officers say the number of deaths due to road accidents in the city have been rising, with the number rising from most significant contributor to the statistics of road traffic accidents of Andhra Pradesh. Incidentally, AP holds the disturbing distinction of reporting the highest number of road accident deaths in the country.

Needless to say, the young form a large chunk of these seemingly dry statistics. “The most economically active and productive age group is the biggest victim of road accidents,” says Dr C K George, director of the city-based Institute of Health Systems (IHS), which is conducting a three-year-long study on the city’s traffic situation sponsored by the Indian Council of Medical Research.

According to Dr George, the highest number of victims for both road accidents and related deaths are aged between 21 and 25 years followed by those between 26 and 30 years. “Of the 50 accident cases we get every week, 80 per cent are in the age group of 20 to 50 and over 20 per cent are aged 20 to 30,” says Dr Hari Prasad, CEO, Apollo Hospitals.

The deaths in this age group are predictably due to the behaviour pattern of the young on the road. Two-wheelers account for the most traffic violations in the city and a large chunk of violators are teenagers or those in their 20’s.

For its road traffic study, IHS had installed ten CCTV cameras to record traffic violations and “counted hundreds of violations every minute” which included jumping signals and driving on the wrong side of the road .

Traffic police officials couldn’t agree more with the study. Cases of drunken driving, for instance, have touched an all time high with the traffic police scouting for drunk drivers with breath analysers.

Additional commissioner of police (traffic), Hyderabad, M Punna Rao says that 993 cases of drunken driving were registered in Hyderabad in the first three months of 2007 by his department. If this number sounds huge, consider this: the Cyberabad traffic police registered a whopping 4,756 drunken driving cases in less than two months (from March 2 to April 23).

While the city’s vehicular population has gone up by an estimated 50 per cent in the last five years and is clearly a major contributor to road accidents (for every 1,000 vehicles, there are two to three accidents on the road), the road widening drive too has added chaos to confusion resulting in more deaths on the road, say traffic police officials.

The rapid growth in Cyberabad too has led to a steep rise in the number of road accidents and deaths. “Cyberabad has undergone rapid urbanisation with more IT and ITeS companies opening here. The vehicular population has increased manifold and new roads have come up. Moreover, the city outskirts now have several pubs and resorts,” reasons Ashok Reddy for the higher accident rate this part of the city has witnessed in the recent past.


“The accident cases we get mostly involve young people in an inebriated state. But there is a sudden drop in such cases ever since the traffic police has intensified its check on drunken driving,” says a senior official of Yashoda Hospitals.

Another reason for the drop in accident related deaths could be the emergency services that are now on offer more visibly by private hospitals, taking care of the crucial ‘en hour’— the one-hour time period following an accident. About 50 per cent accident cases make it to the hospital during this one hour, a vast improvement from the past when accidents would result in deaths due to delay in treatment.

Nevertheless, death and injury on the road is being viewed as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation and not only for health concerns. “Each year, road crashes in low-income and middle-income countries cost US $ 65-100 billion which is more than the total annual development aid given to those countries,” states WHO in its report, ‘Youth and Road Safety’ that was released on Monday.

FACT FILE

Source: http://epaper.timesofindia.com (Hyderabad Edition)
Date Of Publish: 25-Apr-07

__________________
Nothing is fool-proof to a talented fool.

manoj

Now that Hyderabad is Greater, it’s a befitting time to compare the city with other urban centres both nationally as well as globally to see where the city stands in terms of its traffic behaviour. Poor and unruly traffic behaviour is the main reason for accidents and deaths.

V B J Chelikani Rao, who globe trotted for a good 38 years while working with Unesco, and is now settled in Hyderabad and heads the International Foundation for Human Development, says that the city of Nizams has a long way to go before it can match its Indian or international peers. He believes that the traffic situation of a city is a reflection of the mind of the society— how disturbed or how organised a society is can be figured from a city’s traffic.

He believes that any change in the road traffic can be brought about, not with road widening, but with a social change which includes having the ability to accommodate others.

Here Chelikani Rao compares Hyderabad’s traffic sense, or perhaps the lack of it, with other big cities that he feels have better traffic behaviour.

MUMBAI AND CHENNAI: In India, these two cities are the finest examples of orderly urban traffic behaviour that Hyderabad still lacks, feels Rao. He says that in terms of road behaviour, Mumbaikars fare the best and traffic management in Chennai is far superior than the country’s other big cities.

BANGALORE: Although there is large increase in the volume of Bangalore traffic as there has been in Hyderabad now, the behaviour is still polite. “In Hyderabad, people still have to acquire the urban culture of accommodating others,” Rao says.

JAPAN: They have less space and more cars in Japan but in spite of this there is an order in their road behaviour. The parking space in this nation is not much but the way people park their cars, they leave room for others not just to park their vehicles but even to remove parked cars comfortably.

PARIS: “I observed here that a car would stop to let pedestrians pass even if the latter is not using the zebra crossing,” Rao says. He adds that even though the pedestrian is wrong in doing so, the person on the wheel shows concern for him. Here, he says, it is the job of the pedestrian to save his life.

GERMANY: “I appreciate how instinctively people here comply with traffic rules,” he says, recollecting how his friend waited for the red light to turn green to cross the road even though it was past midnight and he was standing on a deserted stretch of road.

Source: http://epaper.timesofindia.com (Hyderabad Edition)
Date Of Publish: 25-Apr-07

__________________
Nothing is fool-proof to a talented fool.

hemant

Very unfortunate not only for those who lost their son/daughter in road accident also for the country because if a 25-year-old dies, we may assume that he or she would have worked another 33 years on average and amortize the estimated loss of productivity.

streetwisw

It's good that you have highlighted the plight of deaths and most of them is due to rash and bad driving. I advocate teaching children in schools about road safety and educating them on the dangers of going out of the home. It only hits a family when they have actually lost a loved one. Hyderabad is doing well and the city is a good place to live in.All it needs is road discipline and better administraton.

dhoomk2

True.

Loosing human life in road accidents is not good for our country because rate of deaths due to road accidents in India is very high.

It is also true neither India nor any other country can become totally accident free zone but rate of deaths due to road accidents can be reduced in India if roads are constructed in proper manner and atleast 50% people obey traffic rules.

We have good roads at many places but no programme of bringing to knowledge the perils of bad road manners for the drivers.

junaid

I have been seeing people on road, how they try to break traffic rules and endanger themselves and as well as others life.But when they get hit they will try to blame the other party.Thats really pathetic,this meaness only costs us dear one day.

We fail to identify the problem's gravity and so dont discuss in our family, the result the upcoming generation also fails to do so and ends up paying their life one day on the road.

So lets think it seriously, Whoes dear ones are those lying dead or severly injured on th road.

mantumadhu

I totally agree with all the views but feel that just airing views and discussing in forums is not even a remote solution. It just makes us feel better. Anyone interested in really doing something?