BENGALURU: Devanahalli traffic police limits witnessed the maximum number of road accidents this year with 326, followed by Yelahanka (320), Peenya (304), K R Puram (272) and Kumaraswamy Layout (247). While traffic police do not have data on the number of accidents on each road, Express spoke to local traffic cops, residents and experts to identify the city’s accident spots.
Devaraje Gowda, a resident of Jakkur, said most accident victims are bikers and pedestrians on service roads who are knocked down by speeding vehicles. “Traffic police and BBMP should ensure road safety measures are in place by deploying additional police personnel and also improving road infrastructure. Many bikers violate traffic norms and run over pedestrians,” he said.
Traffic police personnel say the highway leading to Kempegowda International Airport through Devanahalli and Yelahanka are accident-prone zones because of speeding vehicles. Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) R Hithendra concurred. He said, “Some of the service roads don’t have adequate streetlights which is also a cause for accidents.” He added, “We are also analysing the accident data and giving suggestions to Highways department, BBMP and BDA to improve road infrastructure.”
Experts, however, said the data collection by Bengaluru Traffic Police is not foolproof. “Ideally, the traffic police should maintain road-wise number of accidents to identify issues on these road, including engineering flaws, and then come up with changes to road designs,” said Roshan Toshniwal, a senior project associate at the World Resources Institute which focuses on transport issues. He said most accidents reported on the highway to KIA is because motorists misuse the wide road.
Suresh Byrathi of KR Puram said vehicles parked on roadsides and under flyovers pose a danger, especially at night, to two-wheeler riders who may not see them parked in the dark.