Lack of footpaths, rising black spots behind rising pedestrian deaths in Bengaluru

With 292 fatalities, Bengaluru accounted for 9.48% of the entire pedestrian deaths in 53 main cities in 2023, topping the chart for the best variety of pedestrian deaths that 12 months, in accordance with National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) knowledge.

Traffic police attribute the rise to a rising inhabitants, lack of lane self-discipline, infrastructure shortcomings, and an rising variety of accident black spots.

Bengaluru ranked first in pedestrian fatalities, adopted by Ahmedabad (236) and Jaipur (201), in accordance with the NCRB knowledge. At the State degree, Karnataka additionally ranked third among the many States and union territories, with 2,386 pedestrian deaths, trailing solely behind Bihar (3,462) and Tamil Nadu (4,577).

A senior police officer defined that many footpaths in Bengaluru are inaccessible, both attributable to encroachments or plagued by rubbish. “In most instances, there isn’t a seen footpath in any respect. These elements pressure individuals to stroll on the roads, which is a significant concern,” he mentioned.

“Add accident black spots to those points, and the chance of fatalities will increase. These black spots typically come up attributable to rubbish accumulation and dumped building particles,” the officer added. He additionally highlighted instances the place pedestrians had been critically injured and later died attributable to motrocyclists performing stunts utilizing two-wheelers in violation of the legislation.

To handle these points, the Bengaluru visitors police had launched a drive in 2024 to determine black spots, which proved profitable. However, the initiative was not expanded, which might be an efficient measure to scale back pedestrian deaths.

The officer additionally famous that busy business hubs resembling Chikpete, Kamakshipalya, and J.C. Road lack protected pedestrian crossings, which additional worsens the scenario.

“Previously, even medical doctors conducting post-mortems on accident victims would recommend attainable causes based mostly on the character of accidents, which helped enhance infrastructure (a fancy examine). Bengaluru wants an analogous mannequin– bringing collectively civic our bodies, visitors police, medical doctors, and citizen teams—to handle infrastructure points,” he mentioned, including that a number of different gaps might be resolved via coverage modifications.