ISLAMABAD - Pedestrians and bikers remain at the top for causing road accidents according to an analysis of the year 2019 by Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP).
Expressway and GT Road Tarnol have emerged as dangerous roads of the capital where major accidents happened and the most in numbers - 60 and 29 respectively. Pedestrians on one hand are the main cause of the accidents on Express Highway, whereas, on the other hand, bikers remain at top for causing accidents on GT Road Tarnol.
In the year 2019, the roads of Islamabad faced a total of 205 major accidents recorded by the traffic police of Islamabad.
The official document available with The Nation shares both the location of the accident as well as the type of it. Vehicles hitting bikes are 85 of the total 205 accidents occurred in Islamabad last year. The second place in the list is taken by vehicles hitting pedestrians. A total of 70 accidents are recorded when cars or traffic hit the people on the road.
Vehicle to vehicle accidents are 34, whereas bike to bike accidents are only two in number in the year 2019.
When locations are seen, Express Highway and GT Road Tarnol remain at the top. On 3rd comes Murree Road (Islamabad part) with 15 accidents in the year 2019. Out of the 15 accidents on Murree road, seven of them were caused by pedestrians, according to the official document.
GT Road and Park Road experienced 10 accidents in the previous year. Both of them faced most of the accidents because of bikers.
Islamabad Traffic Police Education Wing Head Ishtiaq told The Nation that the roads of Islamabad needed good engineering, which is most essential for effective and smooth traffic. He emphasised that the flow of the traffic is highly dependent on the structure and making of the roads and highways.
The official stressed that the structuring and engineering of the road is done by the Capital Development Authority and they need to improve it so that the ITP could mitigate the effects of accidents happening in Islamabad.
Furthermore, ITP Computing Wing Head Mohammad Rasheed told this correspondent that there was no pedestrian bridge present on the Kashmir Highway. The official stressed that despite the presence of the biggest Friday Market and huge crowd of customers on Kashmir Highway, there was not even one pedestrian bridge on the road.
Rasheed elaborated that the pedestrian bridges present on Islamabad Express Highway were also very poor in quality and structure. The official showed pictures of the pedestrian bridge present on the Highway to this correspondent. It showed cracks, holes and bumps, which were unsafe and also not good in structure.
However, Rasheed insisted that education was also very important besides the road engineering for smooth and calm traffic. According to the official, driving is more like behaviour and the public needs to get proper education about the traffic and road.
He elaborated that the ITP had an hour-long test for the public to get proper education needed for driving before handing them over with their licenses. But, he stressed, that the government should also start a programme at school level to educate the public about traffic rules and build a better road sense for them.