LAHORE: The past 13-month police data shows that eight pedestrians have been killed and 33 others seriously injured in road accidents at the same spot on Johar Town’s Main Boulevard.

Five of those killed were women while most of the injured were also women and children. The incidents have occurred in front of Mian Plaza where a weekly Sunday market runs. Coincidently, most accidents happened on Sundays when the bazaar was chock-a-block full.

Mahmood, the owner of a juice corner, while explaining reasons behind most of the accidents said: “I have been doing business outside Mian Plaza for 15 years. Although it’s one of the finest roads of the city with service lanes on both sides, it is devoid of any zebra crossing and overhead bridges for pedestrians.”

He said: “We witness two or three accidents every day and no one is ready to care including pedestrians and motorists”.

Quoting a recent incident, he said on Sunday two women were crossing the road when speeding car driven by a student of a private institute hit them. Both women fainted and were taken to hospital where one of them declared dead while other was critical.

“There are a number of private schools, colleges, hospitals, restaurants and a university campus in the vicinity. We heard about the construction of an overhead bridge on the spot about three years ago, but still there is no progress on it”, he said.

A traffic warden, Zain, said a number of motorists are diverted towards Main Boulevard Johar Town due to ongoing Orange Line Metro Train Project on Multan Road and widening of Canal Road from Doctors Hospital to Thokar Niaz Beg.

He said the people living in Raiwind, Valencia, EMI Society and Lake City had to use the Main Boulevard.

He said since most of motorists were not observing speed limit, it was resulting in increase in number of accidents.

He said most of the crashes reported on patches of road outside the Sunday Bazaar, Mian Plaza, Allah-Ho Roundabout and Shadiwal Chowk. “Zebra crossings, overhead bridges, and check on speed can help avert accidents”, he said.

Investigating Officer Riaz Ahmed said the authorities should construct iron fences and an overhead bridge near Mian Plaza and Sunday Bazaar to save lives of pedestrians.

He said most of the arrested motorists when presented before courts were given bail on presenting their driving licenses.

Meanwhile, the data on Rescue 1122 Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) available with Dawn showed that 369 people lost their lives and 50,907 suffered injuries in a total 49,742 RTAs in different areas of the city from Jan 1, 2016 to Feb 1, 2017.

It stated that of the total 50,907 injured, at least 12,686 pedestrians and 27,217 motorcyclists were included.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2017