KARACHI, Feb 9: Road accidents have become a routine feature of the metropolis of 14 million souls. Many people lose their lives on roads and streets to recklessly driven vehicles every day. Major accidents call attention of all and sundry only when people resort to angry demonstrations and show outrage by indulging in violence or set the responsible vehicle on fire.
One such accident had taken place on March 19, 2002 at Karimabad where two college girls and a motorcyclist fell prey to two speedy buses trying to overtake each other. Nine other girls had suffered injuries in the accident. The victims were among a big group of people standing at the bus stand and run over by one of the two vehicles. The accident, besides triggering off violence in Karimabad area instantly, had sent a wave of shock and resentment to the entire city against transport operators.
People from all walks of life, speaking individually and from the political, religious and social forums, burst out in criticizing violators of traffic rules. Their spree, coupled with the campaign by traffic police against reckless driving, lasted several weeks. But, instead of taking any strong action against the heartless, negligent and adamant drivers mainly of public transport, the city government, the very next month, advised traffic police to do away with the campaign launched under Section 279 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
What compelled the city government to pressure the traffic police to abandon the campaign appeared to be the transport operators’ threat to observe an indefinite strike. They managed to blackmail the government successfully and proved that they may rightfully be called ‘transport mafia’.
Only two months before the Karimabad accident, the traffic police had launched an aggressive campaign against reckless driving. For the first time in the history of Karachi’s traffic police, as many as 730 errant drivers were booked in January and another 232 during the next month. The campaign had gained momentum in March when 1,159 drivers of commercial vehicles were booked for reckless driving.
The strict implementation of traffic rules through the campaign naturally annoyed the transport mafia which believed that this was creating fear and nervousness in drivers.
Section 279 of the PPC reads: “Whoever drives any vehicle, or rides, on any public way in a manner so rash or negligent as to endanger human life, or to be likely to cause hurt or injury to any other person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both.”
The transport operators were much perturbed over the arrest of their drivers under this rule as their vehicles were also impounded. Although police can bail out the errant drivers, senior police officials had asked their subordinates not to exercise such powers and, rather, all the cases under this section of the PPC be referred to the concerned courts. The drivers had to appear before the courts for bail by depositing a handsome amount as surety. The disposal of a case normally takes more than a year or two.
The transport operators grabbed an opportunity to get the campaign stopped in March when different groups of transport operators got united and observed a token strike against traffic police ‘excesses’. Their major demand was to convert the murder case, registered against the driver responsible for the Karimabad accident, into 320 of Qisas & Diyat Ordinance which could provide the culprit an opportunity to get bail — in other words a licence to kill more.
The city government failed to withstand the mafia’s pressure and met its demand to abandoned the campaign in April. By that time, another 339 drivers had been booked under the same rule.
The campaign could not be resumed in the following months in spite of the fact that no less than 44 fatal accidents took place in May though the figure showed an improvement in comparison to 51 such accidents in the corresponding month with the number of accidents without a fatality being 29 and 52 respectively.
The number of fatal accidents rose to 56 in July and 60 in August while its came down to 53 in September and 54 in October before going up again to 60 in November and 56 in December as compared to 48 44, 39, 46, 59 and 56 in the corresponding months.
The total number of fatal accidents in 2002 was 623 claiming lives of 653 people where as in 578 such accidents in 2001 in which 635 people were killed.
The involvement of commercial vehicles — buses, minibuses, coaches, water tankers and trucks — in fatal accidents stood at 67 per cent. It is important to bear in mind that the commercial vehicles constitute only four per cent of the total number of vehicles in the city.
To rein in the errant drivers of commercial vehicles, it is essential to make the traffic laws effective, such as section 279, and ensure their enforcement as strictly as possible. Besides, routine challans, cancellation of route permits and other actions should also be taken in order to impress upon the drivers and transporters that nobody was above the law. The transporters should be compelled to install speed governors in their commercial vehicles to keep a check on reckless driving.
The statistics of accidents show an alarming increase in deaths of pedestrians which formed 56.6 per cent (370 in number) of the those died in road accidents. It has been suggested by the traffic police that pedestrian bridges should be re-designed in such a way that they can be used comfortably. The existing bridges are poorly designed and pedestrians prefer to cross the roads on climbing the bridges. The pavements should also be improved and an awareness campaign be launched to educate pedestrians about how to follow the traffic rules.
Speed guns, surveillance cameras and other steps may be taken to monitor traffic movement and improve traffic management.