Team-BHP - Killer Indian roads claim the lives of 56 pedestrians every day

Killer Indian roads claim lives of 56 pedestrians daily.

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The number of fatalities shot up from 12,330 in 2014 to 20,457 in 2017 — a jump of nearly 66%.

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Indian roads are turning deadlier for pedestrians. Government data show the number of fatalities shooting up from 12,330 in 2014 to 20,457 in 2017 — a jump of-of nearly 66%. It translates to 56 pedestrians dying daily last year, despite policymakers and authorities talking about prioritising pedestrian safety

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“The trend of vulnerable road users getting killed is the same across all southeast Asian countries and hence we need to find solutions to our problems of how to make roads safer for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. There is a dire need to segregate these road users from other vehicles to reduce conflicts,” said K K Kapila of International Road Federation.

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In order to reduce pedestrian fatalities, it is also important to educate pedestrians. I don't understand why pedestrians don't realise that their life is at stake and little bit of careful behaviour can go a long way in ensuring safety. Some of the unsafe acts I observe almost daily during my office commute:

1. Using zebra crossing at free-will. There are working traffic signals at junctions and all motorists follow them diligently. However, pedestrians decide that the best time to cross the road is when the signal has turned green. Waiting a few mins is for the weak!!

2. Complete disregard for bigger vehicles. Pedestrians seem to think that buses and bikes have same stopping power. It is common to see them jump is front of buses to cross road in full confidence that the bus will go from 50-0 in 5 meters.

3. Utterly ignorant of children in company. At least hold hands of children to ensure they don't make random dash. How difficult is that?

4. The hand of God! I truly think these pedestrians are some superhumans who believe that extending the stop sign with hands on a 4-lane highway will bring a car speeding at 80 kph to a complete halt in a few meters.

I am not saying that motorists are not to blame here but I sincerely wish that pedestrians value their lives a bit more. That in itself should help bring about significant reduction in road accidents.

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Originally Posted by ksameer1234 (Post 4470313)

In order to reduce pedestrian fatalities, it is also important to educate pedestrians. I don't understand why pedestrians don't realise that their life is at stake and little bit of careful behaviour can go a long way in ensuring safety.

1. Using zebra crossing at free-will. There are working traffic signals at junctions and all motorists follow them diligently. However, pedestrians decide that the best time to cross the road is when the signal has turned green. Waiting a few mins is for the weak!!

In cities like NYC and Hartford, I've seen pedestrians and motorists joust for space. In fact in NYC, pedestrians get the 'cross' signal exactly when motorists get the green to turn. Motorists wait and move only when it is safe to do so.

And here in Chennai, I don't find many motorists obeying traffic signals at all. Maybe in Pune and Mumbai you find disciplined motorists, but Chennai is all about motorists who roar past red lights with abandon.

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I am not saying that motorists are not to blame here but I sincerely wish that pedestrians value their lives a bit more. That in itself should help bring about significant reduction in road accidents.

Continuing with my tirade against Tamil Nadu's motorists - they are mostly to blame on this state's roads. Pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and small hatchbacks are all bullied and decimated like stray dogs.

Pedestrian infrastructure really really needs to be improved in our country-Especially in the big cities. Very few places have proper pavements and road crossing facilities are again almost non existent.

The Bangalore Outer Ring Road is a prime example. Considering the 10-15 km stretch from Silk Board to KR Puram. It is almost a signal free stretch(of course traffic is always crawling-that is a different discussion), lakhs of employees work in this stretch and a huge number use public transport and hence have the need to cross roads. There is only one pedestrian over bridge in this entire stretch and pretty much no option to cross other than risking your life and crossing the road.

I don't think Indian roads are killers. It is us Indians who are suicidal. We need to change our mindsets & inculcate habit of following rules. We laugh on those who follow rules, and we follow those who break them. We walk on roads when we have pathways, we use roads when we have bridges, we drive without seat belts when we have them fitted in our cards and so on.

I am not saying our roads are the best but they are getting better however it is us who have to change, it is us who have to learn to follow rules, it is us who have to learn to respect people around us. I can bet my money on this - leave some Indians on Dubai roads or any other developed country for that matter, with no rules to be followed and you will see accidents happening like they happen on Indian roads.

Very sobering statistics even if the numbers are most likely under-reported.

Indian roads indeed are killers - most places we either have no sidewalks; or they are so poorly maintained it's safer to just not use them! Quite a few places that do have "good" sidewalks (like Brigade and St Marks road in Bangalore), we always come across a fraction that chooses not to use them.

Certainly best and safest to face the on-coming traffic while walking though.

Another thing I've noticed that really drives one up the wall - not only do the turning vehicles rarely stop for the pedestrians, they speed up to drive in front of them!

Extremely sad numbers.

I think the major reasons apart from carelessness, low IQ, lack of common sense are:

1. Vehicles parked on pavements.
2. Vending carts on pavements.
3. Some sort of ego issue with us Indians that "I shall pass first" and it's even more stupid when pedestrians try and force their way expecting the vehicle to stop on their whim, typically the 'chadha de uppar' (hit me if you can) kind of attitude.
4. Lack of road safety sense and awareness, poor education in regards to traffic rules and pedestrian safety.
5. Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement personal and governing body.
6. Minimal coverage by main stream media. News related to this topic is mostly neglected, and even if it is covered they don't bother educating their viewers on the subject of road safety. In other countries (specially the developed ones) they take incidents realted to deaths in a road accident very seriously. Life is cheap in India.
7. Poorly planned roads, lack of proper lightning and safety measures including warning signs.

The list can go on and on. Botton line is NO ONE CARES, nor the Government, nor the People, nor the Press, nor the Jury, nor the Alive, RIP the Dead.

Road safety isn't the sole thing that's overlooked, generally the safety aspects, be it the safety in the workplace for workers or in a playground for kids, or in any given scenario for any group of people, is overlooked in India. Indeed life is cheap in this land.

Nope I have a different take on this.

In India life is cheap, the poorer you are the cheaper your life is. Few people dying is just no news it is fine, we ignore it. In other countries there will be huge protest if people die because of bad infra or careless motorist.

Education is done right from school.
Our education teaches us to be selfish and does not teach how to build a society and importance of co-operation. My generation was the last to get this kind of education.

We vote for caste, religion, region language and never for important development activities. We as voters don't demand so we don't get.

We are bothered about a actor not getting his choice of jacket, but care least for our own helmet or a soldier's bullet proof jacket.
We cannot educate an 30 year old adult. Its really difficult. This culture has to start from school but we have moved education to a pure profit making entity. We are to be blamed for demanding all the wrong things

Guys, why do you think TN has the highest fatalities for pedestrians and 2 wheelers?
I don't think it's the most populous or has the highest number of vehicles per capita, it's literacy rate is also quite high.
It also has decent roads, at least better than Karnataka, most state highways have a seperate lane for 2 wheelers.

Generally, as a society people need to be trained to be defensive (while driving or walking). This mercenary "apna jugaad" individually leads to much worse collective outcomes as each individual is trying to outsmart the next.

The law of large numbers will catch up, and large number of individual risky behaviours becomes larger number of accidents.

We should learn from Japan, where everybody wins collectively.

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Originally Posted by Concorde (Post 4472063)

I drive here in Chennai a lot. I can upload scores of my dashcam videos wherein I'd be the only one stopping at red lights, while cars, city buses and trucks roar by. If at all there's a cop around, he'd be fiddling on his phone. Usually I get honked at or heckled for stopping at red lights. Sometimes, out of fear for my life and my car, I also jump some red lights. But while doing so I've seen poor people on foot, carrying their young ones, struggling to cross the road. I've seen hapless women on scooters, with their tiny tots on board, trying to cross the road. Old people and handicapped people simply stand no chance...

I find that literacy has nothing to do with discipline and common sense. I work out of a IT SEZ. Every evening I find the so-called white collared techies pouring out of the SEZ onto the wrong side of traffic just because traffic is non-existent on the other side of the median. They drive their Renault Dusters and their Bajaj Pulsars on the wrong side of traffic with no remorse.

It's high time I published these videos and created a damning thread here on this forum. The people of TN and the rest of India need to see for themselves, on tape, what monsters the people of TN have become.

Interesting thread!

I agree with most of the opinions expressed here. Even the contradictory ones!

Like 'educating' people (not teaching to read and write - to really educate!) we need to do one more thing - we need to strengthen the law on one small front - jay walking should be illegal and fined. Unfortunately, it seems that for all the people walking - there is a significant number of people who feel that drivers need licenses but they don't! I have actually heard people give this as justification. Also, insurance claims should not be honored in such cases. It is always assumed that the 'bigger one' is responsible. Maybe many times it is true - but to say that this is default is wrong.

Ouch! I just noticed that I have been ranting! Let me stop here.

Regards,

Girish Mahajan

I think lack of teaching about cleanliness and discipline is the main cause. Kids get to see and learn this when their parents drive them to school. Less said the better about that. They are late to school and drive left and right and children learn that. They merge onto roads without bothering and others have to adjust since a child is on the 2 wheeler.

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Originally Posted by ksameer1234 (Post 4470313)

4. The hand of God! I truly think these pedestrians are some superhumans who believe that extending the stop sign with hands on a 4-lane highway will bring a car speeding at 80 kph to a complete halt in a few meters.

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Hahaha was about to write this exact thing with respect to the hand of god. This is massively true in metro cities and the frequency of this happening is increasing increasing the chances of something awful happening.