KARACHI, Dec 15: More than half of road accident victims in the metropolis are motorcyclists and youngsters, finds a survey conducted by two leading hospitals, a university and a car manufacturing company.

The survey titled, “Road Traffic Injury Research Project” evaluates the nature, location, magnitude and major causes of traffic accidents in Karachi. Five major hospitals, including Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Civil Hospital Karachi and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, were selected for the collection of relevant data.

According to the figures, more than 3,300 traffic accidents have been reported in the city this year. The study, which also identifies 21 major ‘black’ spots in the city having a record number of accidents, reveals that 59 per cent of the road accidents involved motorcycles, eight per cent buses/ minibuses and 11 per cent cars. Amongst the road users, the highest number of cases involved 14,519 motorcyclists, followed by 6,644 pedestrians and 6,180 pillion riders.

The survey shows that more than half of the road accident victims were less than 25 years of age. Thirteen per cent of the victims were less than 15 years, nearly 20 per cent aged between 16 and 20 years and 22 per cent were between 21 and 25 years.

When the findings were shared with the governor, he formed a steering committee for taking remedial measures based on the road traffic injury research project.Project Manager S. Ameer Hussain underlined the need to educate motorcyclists and pedestrians, particularly youngsters, since they comprised the highest number of accident victims in the city. “Our data shows that of the motorcyclists who had expired in accidents nearly 86 per cent had serious head injuries because they were without helmets,” he observed.

JPMC Director Dr Rasheed Jooma stressed the need to establish pedestrian bridges particularly when most of the accidents involved jaywalkers and bike riders.