Let us all make our roads safer and avoid accidents

Cops on duty at the Amar Mahal Junction in December last year. File pic

Amar Mahal Junction tops the list of high risk junctions of the city, as per a report released by the Mumbai Traffic Police in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety. The Mumbai Road Safety Annual Report 2020 reveals that the junction witnessed 23 fatalities and 54 serious injuries due to road accidents from 2018 to 2020.

This is followed by Godrej Junction with 16 fatalities and 57 serious injuries, and the intersection of Eastern Express Highway and JVLR in Kanjurmarg East with 11 fatalities and 57 serious injuries. The department is considering engineering and traffic regulations to reduce fatalities at the junctions. Though the year 2020 saw a decline in road accidents due to the COVID-19 lockdown, 350 people died in such incidents.

We can do what is in our power to reduce injuries and fatalities at these junctions. This means cutting the speed, if driving a vehicle. While speeding is hazardous any which way, it is logical that you cut back to slow at these junctions given the propensity of crash.

Pedestrians, too, must not hurtle across these places where four roads meet. Traffic lights that work are a must, and those that tell pedestrians when it is safe to cross are vital. Moreover, people must obey walking across only when the ‘green person' comes on, telling them it is safe to cross.

It is of little use garnering data and figures if we refuse to act on it or find remedies. A special shout out to bikers who come the wrong way, many times, or simply move ahead even when the light says stop. Let us make our junctions safer through a combination of factors, driver discipline, pedestrian precautions and traffic infra that works and is never on the blink.