Pedestrians account for 30% casualties in road accidents, mainly due to lack of footpaths

Nagpur: A city police traffic department data has revealed that pedestrians accounted for 30% of the total fatalities reported on Nagpur's roads in 2024. Not all but a bulk of the fatalities can be attributed to citizens walking on the streets amid traffic due to encroachments and illegal parking on the badly-maintained footpaths, said sources.
As per the data, out of the 345 fatalities in road accidents in the city last year, 104 victims were pedestrians. It also revealed that pedestrians were involved in 251 accidents, including 102 fatal, 96 serious and 53 minor ones. The accidents also left around 180 pedestrians injured.
The recently released Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP), prepared by MahaMetro, revealed that out of the proposed 664 km footpaths in the Nagpur Metropolitan region, only 347 km have been built.
Sources said many of the existing footpaths are in a bad condition, rendering them unusable for pedestrians. "Many footpaths are damaged due to ongoing works and many are yet to be repaired. Compounding the problem is encroachment and illegal parking at most of the locations. Left with no option, pedestrians walk walk on the streets making them vulnerable to rashly driven vehicles," said sources.
Taking cognizance of these problems, the traffic department of the city police, led by DCP (traffic) Archit Chandak, launched the ‘Footpath Freedom' drive with an aim to proactively clear pavements across the city. On the second day of the drive, the traffic department carried out 531 actions, including towing of 86 vehicles, issuing challans to 381 motorists for parking on footpaths, and 65 actions against hawkers interrupting traffic movement.
The traffic department's statistics also revealed that the highest number of pedestrians were killed in the MIDC traffic zone (21), followed by Kamptee (14), Indora (14), and Ajni (13). However, many of these areas also have wide roads and highways, where lack of footpaths is not the main cause of fatalities among pedestrians.
In other traffic zones having congested areas in their jurisdictions reported worrisome figures about pedestrian deaths. The Sitabuldi zone reported eight deaths, followed by Sadar and Sakkardara at 11 deaths each. Sources said that not all pedestrian deaths could be attributed to lack of footpaths, as some died while crossing roads or on highways. "However, most pedestrians who died in the city were walking on roads due to lack of footpaths," said sources.
Box:
Infographics
Zone --------Total Accidents --------Deaths ----- Injured
Sitabuldi ---------- 16 --------------- 8 ---------------------- 8
Sadar -------------- 28 ---------------- 11-------------------- 20
Cotton Market ---- 9 ---------------- 4 -------------------- 7
Indora ------------- 40 --------------- 14 -------------------- 28
Kamptee --------- 30 --------------- 14 --------------------- 16
Sakkardara ------- 20 -------------- 11 ---------------------- 23
Sonegaon -------- 15 ---------------- 3 --------------------- 16
MIDC ------------- 43 --------------- 21 ---------------------- 27
Lakadganj ------- 11 ---------------- 5 ---------------------- 6
Ajni --------------- 38 --------------- 13 ------------------ 29
Total ------------ 251 ---------- --- 104 ----------------- 180