Karachi (December 31, 2018): Road traffic accidents (RTA) are an important yet preventable cause of death which effected hundreds of people in Karachi, in 2018.
Fatalistic attitude of people about accidents along with reaching a compromise with perpetrators hushed up 90 per cent of the cases.
Overspeeding was one of the recurring problems that no one paid heed to.
According to details, 235 accidents took place in the metropolis, from January 1 to December 20 of year 2018, in which 207 lives were lost whereas, 178 got critically injured.
Gharbi topped the list of having the most accidents with an average of 56 casualties and 46 injured.
64 jaywalkers and pedestrians lost their lives in traffic accidents for not using the pedestrian bridge.
Three major factors contributing to road accidents, are unskilled drivers driving without a valid licence, overspeeding and overtaking without indication.
According to the data, around 60 per cent of drivers do not have a valid driving licence that remains a big problem in managing the city’s traffic and “reckless drivers”.
At various traffic intersections in the city, 3,200 traffic policemen are deputed to regulate movement of 3.79 million vehicles whose number increases by 908 per day according to the report that quoted the vehicular data compiled by the excise and taxation department.
On an average, every traffic policeman has to manage traffic of 1,031 vehicles on city roads. Of these vehicles, motorcycles make up to around 54.87 per cent traffic on roads, followed by cars (32.6 per cent), rickshaws (5.5 per cent) and the remaining traffic.
The Superhighway, the National Highway, Korangi Industrial Area, main Korangi Road, Sharea Faisal and Mauripur Road are identified as the “black spots” where most of the accidents occurred in the past four months.
Motorcyclists who oversped on roads got into 149 accidents and 139 casualties were reported in 2018. 
In many developing countries, road crashes are still seen as “accidents” that cannot be prevented.
Recognition of road crashes as a major public health problem that is predictable and preventable is essential in addressing this emerging global epidemic.
Karachi is the largest and most populous city of the Pakistan, which is spread over 3529 km2 in area, and having a population of 12 991 000 and 1 508 215 registered vehicles.
In terms of metropolitan population it is the 20th largest city of the world.
Despite these statistics, there remains a dearth of RTI-related data from Karachi, or from any other part of Pakistan for that matter.
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