AHMEDABAD: As a pedestrian, you wouldn't want your life to hinge on the mercy of a careless motorist on Ahmedabad roads. A citizen who chooses to walk in Ahmedabad faces the risk of being run over by cars dashing through crossroads, refusing to respect the rights of pedestrians According to a recent Road Accident Sampling System India (RASSI) report by JP Research India, which studied accidents between January and July last year, of the 1,239 accident cases in Ahmedabad 329 involved pedestrians. Of these 356 accidents involved cars and 613 involved two-wheeler riders. Highest fatalities were observed among pedestrians (18%) and cyclists (17%).In 95 cases, cars had directly struck pedestrians, killing 10 people.Junaid Shaikh, a senior traffic safety research engineer with Autoliv, used the RASSI data to study 863 accidents in five cities - Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Pune and Jaipur - to understand why cars were killing pedestrians.He found that when pedestrians or cyclists were hit by cars, in 63% of cases, the pedestrians suffered head injuries from hitting the windshield, the ground, the hood, the side surface, tyres or wheels.About 5% of cases involved face injuries from striking the windshield or the ground, while 45% of cases involving lower extremity injuries, including the pelvis, were from striking the hood, front bumper, hood edge, other exterior surface, tyres and wheels of the car.In 29% of cases, the pedestrian suffered injuries in the thorax because of the shattering windshield, the car's hood or the hood edge, tyres or wheels. In 5% cases, the study found spinal injuries caused from striking the windshield, tyres or wheels."Incorporating improved head-impact protection such as hood lifters for vulnerable road user (VRU) or pedestrian airbags reduced the risk to 18% and 6%, respectively," Shaikh stated in the study.He adds that by reducing car speeds from 75kmph to 40kmph it would "increase the effectiveness of improved head-impact protection."However, his study observed that, at 40kmph, the chance of serious head injury was 97% and 100% for impacts with the lower windshield area or A-pillar, respectively.The study claims that fatality risks at 50kmph are twice that of at 40kmph and almost five times that of at 30kmph.

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