From a high of 213 pedestrian deaths in 2013, the number of pedestrian fatalities in traffic accidents has declined in Hyderabad to 124 in 2018. A sharp 42% dip in five years, data from a Right to Information application filed by an NGO and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways reveal. “This decline is either due to rise in pedestrian awareness or is a case of under-reporting,” says Malcolm Wolfe, an activist for pedestrian rights.
Among the big eight metropolitan cities in the country, Hyderabad has seen a 7% decline in pedestrian fatalities between 2017 and 2018 while Delhi and Ahmedabad have seen a spike in pedestrian deaths. Nationally, there were 22,656 pedestrian deaths in 2018 as against 20,457 in 2017, which is a spike of 10.75%.
Pedestrians are a highly vulnerable segment in the traffic as they formed 15% of the accident victims, while two-wheeler riders are the most at risk, constituting 36.5% accident victims in the country in 2018.
“The pedestrian infrastructure has not improved. Nearly 90% of the city has no footpaths for pedestrians to walk on. Crossing the roads at traffic intersections is a high-risk affair. I don’t know how the numbers could have declined,” says Mr. Wolfe, who blames city planners for the state of road infrastructure.
Police officials say they are helpless in freeing footpaths of hawkers in arterial roads. “We penalise them. We ask them to move away. They run after hearing the siren but come back within no time. Even if we take away their weights and measures, they cry and plead with us to return the equipment,” says a traffic constable attached to the Asifnagar traffic police station about the hawker presence in Rythu Bazaar area near Mehdipatnam.
