Kozhikode district is facing a serious pedestrian safety crisis, with an alarming increase in road accidents at crosswalks. This situation has sparked significant concern among both residents and authorities. Despite numerous directives from the Kerala State Human Rights Commission and urgent appeals from local civic groups for intervention, police and Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) enforcement units have been slow to act, failing to launch dedicated campaigns against reckless driving.
Across Kozhikode city, private bus and taxi drivers are consistently ignoring pedestrian rights at designated crossings. This happens even in areas under surveillance by CCTV cameras connected to police control rooms. Key junctions like Mananchira, Palayam, Medical College, Eranhipalam, Thondayad, and Malaparamba are identified as particularly dangerous spots, where drivers often speed through without slowing down or stopping, eager to beat traffic lights.
Similar hazards confront pedestrians around the Kozhikode railway station, Mofussil bus stand, and KSRTC bus stand. The threat to schoolchildren is especially troubling; teachers from various schools located along national and State highways report that students face immense difficulty crossing roads safely due to fast-moving traffic. The lack of robust enforcement measures, they emphasize, only intensifies these risks.
The gravity of this problem was tragically highlighted by the recent death of 72-year-old Gopalan from Ulliyeri. On September 26, at approximately 6:30 a.m., he was fatally hit by a speeding car while using a zebra crossing near the Mofussil bus stand. Gopalan, who had just disembarked from a bus, was on his way to the Kozhikode Government General Hospital for an eye examination. The force of the impact propelled him nearly 25 meters, and despite being rushed to a private hospital, he was pronounced dead shortly after.
In a separate but related incident, Shahida from Koyilandy suffered a severe head injury and remains in critical condition at the same hospital. Relatives of the victims have voiced serious accusations, claiming that the driver involved, a doctor, was intoxicated. They further allege that police failed to apply stricter legal charges, permitting him to leave without thorough verification or mandatory alcohol testing.
However, a senior officer from the City traffic department disputed these claims, assuring that further charges would be filed once the investigation team concludes its inquiry, gathers witness testimonies, and reviews the CCTV footage from the accident scene.
Concurrently, MVD enforcement squads are drawing continuous criticism from Kozhikode residents for their perceived lax approach to monitoring traffic rule violators who consistently endanger pedestrians. Community leaders from residents’ forums in Eranhipalam and Mavoor Road assert that attributing insufficient speed control to a lack of personnel merely compounds the danger for pedestrians across the city.