Majority of accident victims are pedestrians

Like every year, last year too the majority of accident victims were pedestrians, followed by bikers. Next in line came those travelling in cars, tempos and riding bicycles.

A senior traffic official said: "Pedestrians are always vulnerable. Due to the bad condition of skywalks and subways, pedestrians do not use them. They are mostly unruly, jump dividers and do not follow signals and fall prey to accidents."

To reduce accidents involving bikes, traffic department now plans to focus on helmetless riding and drink-driving. "We have increased vigil against motorbike offenders. We want to bring down the number of bike accidents in the coming year. We will also start penalising pedestrians for jay walking (reckless pedestrian walking)," added the officer.

Some of the common causes of accidents are over-speeding, rash driving, jumping signal and drink-driving. "Indiscipline and carelessness lead to accidents. We have identified vulnerable spots and studied them. We have also brought in changes in traffic control and flow, etc in such areas," added Pratap Dighavkar, DCP Traffic.

Potholes and uneven roads too are villains in the piece. Traffic officials have been giving reports on this to several government agencies.

Cops have also set up a WhatsApp group through which accident emergency is notified so that police can be deployed immediately in affected areas.