Chennai: Increasing vehicle speed by even only 5 per cent could leave the driver or someone on the road in bandages. This is no exaggeration. The warning has come from none other than the World Health Organisation (WHO), which, in its global status report on road safety had cautioned that a road user has 10 per cent more chance of getting injured and 20 per cent more chance of dying in a road crash by increasing the vehicle speed by a mere 5 per cent.
Considering that over speeding is the second major cause of road crashes in the city, Chennaiites ignore the ‘speed thrills, but kills’ warning mostly on 30 arterial roads that account for around 54 per cent of all crashes (29,797 since January 2010 to December 2012) reported in the city. This is what statistics provided by the city traffic police and analysed by road safety think thank, the Institute for Transport and Development Policy (ITDP) suggests. The ITDP analyses has put GST Road (Saidapet to Tambaram), which claimed three lives in a road crash at Pallavaram on Thursday, on top of the chart with 2,115 crashes reported during the aforesaid period.
EVR Periyar Salai has emerged fifth followed by Velachery Main Road and Anna Salai.
Only five of the 30 vulnerable roads fall within the City Corporation’s purview. Also, the five CoC-maintained roads, Arcot Road, Sardar Patel Road, New Avadi Road, Wall Tax Road and SN Chetty Road, which had recorded fewer crashes, are narrower than the 25 highways. Also, pedestrians/cyclists and two-wheeler users account for 44 per cent and 46 per cent of total casualties recorded during the period.
Senior traffic cops requesting anonymity admitted that ECR and Santhome High Road recorded the maximum cases of rash driving and GST Road and PH Road of cases of over speeding. “Most accidents happen on arterial roads with high vehicle density. Traffic offences decrease when we increase the number of cases we book,” the officer added.
Contesting the theory, ITDP technical director Shreya Gadapalli says, “Mere enforcement will not prevent over speeding. Congestion automatically reduces vehicle speed. Most accidents in the city have been reported on wide roads. The road design has to be changed. Many countries have reduced the width of urban streets (roads).” For instance, New York City has reduced the motor vehicle lanes to 9 feet (2.75 m) from 11 feet (3.35 m). Singapore has also followed suit.
Globally, the width of urban streets is kept at 2.75 m (regular) and it is extended up to 3.3 m in case of streets with bus rapid transit system and 3.5 m for highways.
“Both the State and National highway departments lay roads to a width of 3.5 m in cities,” Shreya Gadapalli said, citing Anna Salai and Jawaharlal Nehru Salai as examples of urban streets widened to global highway standards.
