KARACHI, Pakistan — Fatal road accidents are the top cause of death for young people around the world, according to a United Nations report on its road safety campaign for 2011-2020.
In Karachi, Pakistan, of the 33,000 people injured in road accidents in 2013, 1,130 people aged 16 to 30 died. Of the total, 64 percent of injuries and 49 percent of fatalities were among motorbike drivers or those riding on the backs of motorbikes.
According to the data collected from the city’s five government-run hospitals by Karachi’s Road Traffic Injury Research and Prevention Center, on average, 94 young people died in avoidable accidents each month.
“The sad part is these injuries and deaths were avoidable. Our data says 86 percent of the injured or deceased riders were not wearing a helmet,” said Dr. Raza Rizvi, a neurosurgeon and associate professor at Karachi’s Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Center.
A vast majority of those admitted to hospitals suffer head injuries or end up handicapped, activists say, but a road accident can cause more than just physical damage.
“Ours is a joint family system where families are dependent on one breadwinner. But when the latter suffers a debilitating injury or dies, the entire family is paralyzed, both socially and economically,” explained Malik Zaheerul Islam, former director general of the Karachi Mass Transit Cell who at one time also headed the Traffic Engineering Bureau in the port city.
While making rounds in the intensive care unit at Jinnah Hospital’s neurosurgical ward, Dr. Rizvi pointed to Abdul Hadi, 30. A team of doctors were struggling to keep alive, though it was becoming increasingly clear that their efforts were in vain.
Lying still at the far end of the ward, the young man’s head was covered with bandages and a tube had been inserted into his mouth. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully.
Actually, his stillness was a point of concern. “This young man will not survive, and if he does, will remain in a vegetative state,” Dr. Rizvi said, peering at the young man’s files. Hadi, the doctor said, was not wearing a helmet, which could have saved him from the severe head trauma.
According to the city’s Road Traffic Injury Research and Prevention Center, 84 percent of those injured or killed in road accidents last year were male. And 73 percent were driving at the time of the accident.
Dr. Rizvi offered details on some cases, each more heart-rending than the next. “And we haven’t even begun to talk about the mental health of the survivor and his family,” he said.
The neurosurgeon has pinned his hopes on the next generation, explaining that he would like schools to start a campaign on road safety and include it as part of the curriculum.
“I don’t think our police will be able to enforce road safety. We have to target the children now,” he said. “They can take our message to their respective homes and pressure the grown-ups to behave conscientiously, and then hopefully they will grow up to be responsible riders.”
City without mass transit
The population of Karachi, a megapolis currently home to 18 million people, is projected to increase to 27.6 million by 2020 and to 31.6 million in 2030.
Public transport includes large buses, minivans, taxis, three-wheeled rickshaws and a new and popular mode of transportation called the Qingqi, a kind of a rickshaw strapped to a motorcycle.
“In the absence of a mass transit system, and inadequate, expensive privately-owned public transport, which is in shambles, motorbikes have naturally become the choice for millions of commuters,” explained Muhammad Yunus, director of the Urban Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that has been documenting transport woes in Karachi since it was founded in 1989.
Urban planner Arif Hasan and researcher Mansoor Raza published a 2011 study, titled Motorbike Mass Transit, estimating that there were 1 million motorbikes in Karachi in 2010.
Quoting the Karachi Transportation and Improvement Project, the report said there will be an estimated 3.6 million motorbikes in Karachi by 2030. Also by 2030, there are expected to be 115 motorbikes for every 1,000 persons, up from 57 in 2011.
Meanwhile, it is not uncommon to see entire families — as many as five or six people — or large, bulky items traveling on a single motorbike.
Too many bikes, too few helmets
Activists say that helmets could save thousands of lives each year. Helmets are not very expensive, but riders are averse to them.
“Helmets will not reduce accidents, but they will reduce the severity of the injury,” Islam, the former traffic official.
Faisal Hussain, 35, a banker, was rushed unconscious to the Jinnah Hospital emergency room last week after a car hit his bike and he fell on the road. Like Hadi, he was not wearing a helmet.
“Has anyone tried to measure the impact these helmets can take, the cost, the quality, etc.?” asked Islam, noting that increasing fines has proven futile.
“We must know the reasons first before we can make people aware of the risks of not wearing the helmet,” he added.
Hussain said the main reason he believes most riders don’t wear a helmet is that “it becomes difficult to see the sides when you are wearing one.” Other riders also cite heat, especially in the summer, as a reason why they don’t wear helmets.
Risky behavior, dangerous roads
Motorists’ attitudes have played a greater role in the rise in fatal accidents than increased traffic.
“People obey laws either out of fear or respect. In Karachi, I have seen an absence of both. People feel they own the road. It is this culture of open disregard for laws that is so dangerous,” Islam said.
“There are several private vehicle training schools,” he noted, “but not a single one for those who want to learn to ride a motorbike.”
In addition, it’s easy to get a driver’s license without passing a road skills test. More alarmingly, motorbike drivers without helmets can often be seen using cellphones while driving on Karachi’s roads, while billboards and hoardings offer other distractions that can lead to road accidents.
Irfan Saleem, who works at the Road Traffic Injury Research and Prevention Center, said risky behavior partly stems from a sense of impunity among those with influence, “while the common man just pays off a little bribe to the traffic warden and gets off easily with breaking the law.”
“I know that in the evening, especially late in the night, many young men returning from work like to race with their friends. Often if the road is clear, they will try different antics, including one-wheeling, but there is no one to stop them,” Saleem said.
Zafar Iqbal, an engineer with the center, also blamed faulty road engineering for some particularly bad road accidents. “Often road bumps constructed to reduce speed cause more harm than good because there is a design fault or it’s sub-standard.”
He said that sometimes all it takes is a really low-cost solution to resolve these road problems. For example, he explained how the center dramatically reduced accidents on an overhead circular bridge connecting the harbor to the city center.
“We noticed it was a regular passage for fish-laden trucks. The melted ice water made the road very slippery and speeding bikes often skidded on it. Between 2008-2010, we had recorded 15 to 18 fatalities a month, on average,” he explained. “We suggested to the traffic police to put rumble strips on the road and put up corrugated iron sheets along the curb to break the wind. The deaths caused by road slipperiness came down to between four and five.”
Giving another example, he said widening the road and putting cat’s eyes in the middle of a main artery that had heavy, fast traffic in both directions, helped divide the road as a dual carriageway.
On their list of successes, though, their greatest achievement has been convincing the administration of the necessity of building pedestrian bridges over major arteries. Karachi now has over 170 such walkways that allow people to cross traffic-congested roads smoothly and safely.