Pedestrians and users of slow-moving vehicles such as bicycles account for 33 per cent of road accident victims in the city, a study conducted by Transparent Chennai has revealed.
Speaking at a meeting on ‘Road safety and pedestrian infrastructure' at the Institute of Financial Management and Research here on Saturday, researcher Roshan Toshniwal presented the findings of his study on road safety in Chennai, compiled largely from replies in response to RTI queries.
“Chennai comes third in India in terms of the number of people dying in road accidents,” he said.
“Eighteen per cent of the accidents in the city occur on Inner Ring Road, Anna Salai, and Poonamallee High Road, all places where the Chennai Metro Rail is soon to come up,” he said. Inadequate access infrastructure for pedestrians, he believes, could reduce accessibility to the Metro.
A panel discussion followed, in which former professor of Traffic Engineering from Anna University K.P. Subramanian, Head of Department, School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University, Abdul Razzak Mohamed, rights activist from the Disability Legislative Unit of Vidya Sagar Rajiv Rajan and former Additional Director-General of Police Nanchil Kumaran, participated.
“Unless pedestrians assert their rights it may not be possible for safe walking zones to exist,” said Mr. Subramanian. Mr. Rajan said, “When we speak of road safety, we do not account for persons with disabilities.”
