Motorcyclists beware! 116 bikers die on city roads in 10 months.

KARACHI -- The roads of the metropolis have proved to be a death trap for motorcyclists as 116 bikers lost their lives in the first 10 months of the current year during which a total of 165 people died in road traffic accidents, it emerged on Sunday.

The heavy vehicles plying on Karachi roads continue to take lives as the data shared by the Karachi traffic police showed that 11 people were killed by buses, 12 by water tankers, 14 each by dumper trucks and oil tankers, 20 by trailers and 37 by trucks.

Heavy vehicles were involved in around 65 per cent of accidents, the data shows.

DIG-Traffic Ahmed Nawaz Cheema told Dawn that there were multiple reasons behind accidents such as road engineering, lack of streetlights, missing traffic signs, non-functioning traffic signals, driver's proficiency and observance of traffic rules, etc.

He also conceded that driving licences were not given through standardised procedure and fake licences were also being issued.

According to the vehicle-wise break down of accidents, trucks were involved in most number of accidents, which is 31, of which 28 proved to be fatal.

There were 13 bus accidents, 10 of them fatal; 23 trailer accidents, 18 fatal; 16 dumper truck accidents, 12 fatal; 19 water tanker accidents, 11 fatal and 16 oil tanker accidents, of which 12 proved to be fatal.

The data shared by the traffic police shows that 165 lives were lost in 145 fatal accidents in which 116 motorcyclists were killed in 98 fatal accidents, 32 pedestrians in 32 fatal accidents and 17 other commuters died in 15 fatal accidents.

Minibuses were involved in a total of 13 accidents of which seven were fatal, killing eight people.

There were eight coach accidents of which five proved to be fatal; 10 pickup accidents of which six were fatal; 20 car accidents of which 15 were fatal; one fatal motorcycle-rickshaw accident; eight motorcycle accidents...