• 165 Karachiites fall prey to traffic accidents
• 65pc of accidents involve heavy vehicles
• District West reports highest casualties
• In 2021, 183 people lost their lives

KARACHI: The roads of the metropolis have proved to be a death trap for motorcyclists as 116 bikers lost their lives in the first 10 months of the current year during which a total of 165 people died in road traffic accidents, it emerged on Sunday.

The heavy vehicles plying on Karachi roads continue to take lives as the data shared by the Karachi traffic police showed that 11 people were killed by buses, 12 by water tankers, 14 each by dumper trucks and oil tankers, 20 by trailers and 37 by trucks.

Heavy vehicles were involved in around 65 per cent of accidents, the data shows.

DIG-Traffic Ahmed Nawaz Cheema told Dawn that there were multiple reasons behind accidents such as road engineering, lack of streetlights, missing traffic signs, non-functioning traffic signals, driver’s proficiency and observance of traffic rules, etc.

He also conceded that driving licences were not given through standardised procedure and fake licences were also being issued.

According to the vehicle-wise break down of accidents, trucks were involved in most number of accidents, which is 31, of which 28 proved to be fatal.

There were 13 bus accidents, 10 of them fatal; 23 trailer accidents, 18 fatal; 16 dumper truck accidents, 12 fatal; 19 water tanker accidents, 11 fatal and 16 oil tanker accidents, of which 12 proved to be fatal.

The data shared by the traffic police shows that 165 lives were lost in 145 fatal accidents in which 116 motorcyclists were killed in 98 fatal accidents, 32 pedestrians in 32 fatal accidents and 17 other commuters died in 15 fatal accidents.

Minibuses were involved in a total of 13 accidents of which seven were fatal, killing eight people.

There were eight coach accidents of which five proved to be fatal; 10 pickup accidents of which six were fatal; 20 car accidents of which 15 were fatal; one fatal motorcycle-rickshaw accident; eight motorcycle accidents of which three were fatal and 19 other accidents of which 17 were fatal in which 19 people lost their lives.

In the district-wise distinction, district West topped the chart with 84 accidents, of which 53 were fatal, in which 60 residents of Karachi were killed.

There were 35 accidents in district Malir, of which 33 were fatal with 40 deaths; 22 in East, of which 17 were fatal with 18 deaths; 19 in South, of which 13 were fatal with 15 deaths; 16 in Central of which 13 were fatal with 15 deaths; 16 in Korangi of which 12 were fatal with 13 deaths and five in Keamari District of which four were fatal.

However, the data suggested a slight decrease in numbers as compared to the last year as the total number of people killed in accidents in the first 10 months of 2021 was 183, 18 more than that of 2022.

Speaking to Dawn, DIG-Traffic Cheema lamented that whenever they try to push authorities to make some legislation, they were pressurised by associations with vested interests which also received backing of some government offices.

“Whenever we try to formulate a new law these associations blackmail us that they will not lift the garbage from streets or they will not transport the oil to the city, etc.”

To reduce the number of accidents, the department had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the NED University to analyse the cause of accidents and adopt possible measures to solve the problem, he added.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2022