Sir,

Around 40% to 45% of those who die in road accidents are pedestrians. The major cause for accidents is absence of foot-paths. Where footpaths do exist the reasons for fatalities is poor footpath design, width below specification, blocked or encroachment by vendors.

The other contributory factors are absence of safe pedestrian crossing made worse by vehicle drivers not giving primacy to pedestrians. Even among those killed, women, children, senior citizens, individuals with disabilities face greater danger.

Google search yields a distressing statistics in every State in India. There are reports of cases when two-wheel riders using footpaths posing danger to pedestrians.

To discourage such footpath riding, the footpath should be provided with the IRC design of  unmountable curbs.

In many cases let alone footpaths even the adjacent earthen portion is not level with road surface which poses danger to both vehicle drivers and pedestrians. Several instances of this can be seen in Mysuru.

In Mysuru the  days are gone  when the  Mysuru City Corporation Commissioner  would come on spot visits on request of the local people. Whether in enforcing specification or supervising the  road work, it is mostly left to the contractor with the result a quality  work is not ensured resulting in premature failure. This implies  the need for enforcing work culture.

– H.R. Bapu Satyanarayana, Saraswathipuram, 11.11.2022

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