Menacing roads: accidents in Karachi doubled in 2024

KARACHI: As dumpers race past on the roads of Karachi, crushing anyone who dare come in the way, official data has revealed the number of deaths in road traffic accidents has more than doubled in 2024 as compared to 2023. In terms of percentage, there is an exponential 282.61 percent rise in deaths during the year 2024 compared to the previous year, data of the Karachi Traffic Police showed.

In the twelve months of 2023, 161 deaths were reported in the city according to traffic police data. During the year 2024, however, the deaths in road traffic accidents exponentially rose to 616, while in the first quarter of 2025, from January 1 to April 22, 313 people have fallen prey to road accidents.

The Sindh’s Minister of Information Sharjeel Memon has on record acknowledged that there has been a sudden rise in the number of accidents related deaths in the country’s largest city, Karachi, since November, but admitted the government does not have any explanation for the surge.

Rather the authorities are struggling to explain the reasons behind the sudden unexplained rise in accidents resulting in deaths of mostly motorcyclists.

The sheer number of accident related deaths and mounting controversy surrounding them, has caused former DIG Traffic his posting, while the new stricter enforcement seems to show a dip in the number of accidents.

Cameras to be installed on dumper, trucks in Karachi

Perhaps, the most gory accident took place on March 25, at Malir Halt when a full-term pregnant woman along with the baby, husband were killed after being hit by a water tanker. The doctor said the full-term baby, died due to expulsion of abdominal contents on the road.

Police initial investigation suggested that the driver, who was working for 24-hours without catching a break, was accused of over-speeding, and was fatigued.

Apart from the driver’s role in the accident, Muhammad Ali Qasim, an advocate of the high court and a local resident blamed the traffic congestion at Malir Halt. Qasim believes that the traffic increases due to the illegal stop of electric bus which stays parked at the Jinnah Avenue, trickling down at the Malir Halt intersection at Shahrah-e-Faisal.

The bus station is illegal and unlawful because it is right after a turning. Complaints regarding many vendors and the bus long parking in this airport area traffic section remained deliberately unattended and were dodged. It is sad to see how corruption is now consuming lives, he added.

On April 9, as many as nine water tankers and dumpers were set on fire by an enraged mob in North Karachi, after a motorcyclist suffered minor injuries but his bike was dragged by the truck driver as this was captured by video footage.

The Sindh government announced random drug tests of the drivers of heavy vehicles, but also made it compulsory for all heavy transport vehicles, light transport vehicles and public service vehicles to be equipped with trackers, dashcams and underrun protection devices on the front sides.

However, not much respite is expected by these measures which largely appear superficial in nature.

“Motorbikes are possibly the most dangerous of all vehicles and when you add potholes on the roads, a callous disregard for traffic rules and poor lighting at turns, it becomes an often lethal mix,” Police Surgeon Karachi Dr Summaiya Syed, told Hum News English.

Cause of death are crush injuries or impact to the head, she added.

The reported cases are far less than the actual numbers. Most cases of minor injuries sustained in road traffic accidents never get reported at tertiary care government centers, the Police Surgeon said.

“Some of the deaths received in road traffic accident cases may never allow postmortem, hence affecting the data collection,” Dr Summaiya pointed out.

According to the data of Police Surgeon Office, Karachi, total autopsies of road traffic accidents in 2024 were 497 while the total medico-legal cases of road accidents were 4,879.

In 2023, 406 autopsies of road traffic accidents were performed along with 3474 medicolegal cases of road traffic accidents, while in 2022, there were 511 autopsies and 2431 medicolegal cases of road traffic accidents were reported. In 2021, there were 424 post mortems and 2500 medicolegal cases of road traffic accidents reported. Similarly in 2020, 498 autopsies of road traffic accident cases were performed and 2802 cases of road traffic accidents were reported at the different medico legal centre of government hospitals in Karachi.

From the investigation point of view, police generally take the cases lightly and majority of the accident cases are closed with no technical report as to what caused the accident, a human error or technical fault.

‘Killer’ dumpers in Karachi take five more lives

Usually in 90 percent cases, police describe these accidents as human error, failure or delay in the usage of brakes, which leads to accident cases being closed, Director for Environment and Social Sustainability at NED University Dr Muhammad Ahmed told Hum News English.

The authorities have thus constituted an investigation team called Karachi Road Accidents Analysis Team, which would technically investigate the road traffic accident and record them in proper manner.

In this connection a four day extensive training session of this team of policemen was conducted during Ramadan by the NED.

“Now they are sending us forms having technical details of each accident collected from the scene of the traffic accidents. We plan to conduct another session with the team with the data they have collected,” Dr Ahmed said adding, “There is no doubt that a high number of traffic accidents are taking place, but six months back accidents the situation was no different.”

According to his observation, heavy vehicles were not following restricted timings at all in the city limits, till a while back, now they are being made to follow the late night timings. He pointed out that water tankers don’t have guards at their rare wheels – often motorcyclist death is caused when he gets crushed beneath the rare wheels. So rare guards around the wheels have been made mandatory by the authorities.

Majority of the people are not aware of basic traffic laws, right of way, lane jumping are non-existent, Dr Ahmed went on to add.

Hotspots:

Few years ago, the Native Jetty upper ramp had turned deadly and was causing multiple deaths in a short span of time. It appeared that there no issue of road curve – it was revealed that trucks carrying trash fish used to pass the ramp at night. In the morning time, dew added to the leftover water from the trucks causing skidding resulting in accidents.

Similarly, at Shahrah-e-Faisal beneath the Baloch Colony bridge, there is a curve and there is a constant shadow. During the day when people are standing in the shade and at around 4 pm when sunlight falls straight to the driver’s eyes, they cannot see the people standing beneath the bridge.

Likewise, on Shahrah E Faisal near Lal Kothi during a certain period of time cases of road accidents involving senior citizens started to occur. It turned out that there was a post office where they used to come to collect the pension. Later when pension distribution was de-centralised the issue got resolved, Dr Ahmed went on to add.

In a recent joint press conference, both Awami National Party (ANP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) tried to cool down the situation by stating that the ongoing issue of fatal traffic accidents are an administrative failure, not the product of an ethnic issue.

Bushra Zaidi Legacy:

Karachi is no stranger to violence especially when it comes to traffic accidents. Often the vehicle involved in the accident is burnt on the scene.

Memory of 1985 refuses to go away – when on the morning of April 15, 1985, a college student Bushra Zaidi, was killed in a minibus accident at Nazimabad Chowrangi. The accident caused ethnic riots and the city was put under curfew.

The role of rickety minibuses which were often blamed for causing accidents in the yester years has now been taken up by several times dangerous vehicle dumpers and water tankers.