Avoidable accidents

Deaths from hits by heavy vehicles continue to occur in Karachi – with a young female motorcyclist and a seven-year-old boy being the latest victims, losing their lives on the road in Landhi and Manghopir, respectively. These untimely deaths are a heartbreaking reminder of the devastation that poorly-operated large commercial vehicles cause on our roadways every day. Though statistics show that the number of traffic fatalities is declining over the past few years, this is largely due to better policing of passenger vehicles, including personal cars, and better controls on highways. City roads, however, remain littered with deadly dangers caused by a combination of unskilled and rash drivers, poorly-maintained roads and insufficient road capacity.

Some experts have noted that Pakistan’s method for checking intoxicated drivers is heavily flawed and cumbersome, as it relies on carting drivers off to hospitals for testing, which can allow drivers time to sober up. Instant tests, which are the norm in most countries, are accurate and easily administered, only taking minutes to return a negative or sober result, while samples that provide suspected positive instant results can be confirmed by labs, allowing for proper prosecution.

Truck drivers are notorious users of recreational drugs and stimulants that keep them awake and driving longer, but also have intoxicating properties. Without zero tolerance for impaired driving, avoidable accidents will continue to take lives. But even sober drivers are woefully undertrained, as it is relatively common for drivers to be operating vehicles that are bigger than their licences allow, and learning on the job is a common practice.

Unfortunately, the best way to reduce truck fatalities on city streets is to ban trucks from them, but this is impossible, since the city will die of thirst due to elected representatives’ failure to provide water, necessitating the presence of water bowsers that barrel down city streets and regularly harm pedestrians and commuters. While deaths on the road are a fact of life, it is high time we took active measures to reduce the number of reckless drivers behind the wheels of 10-tonne trucks.