Traffic accidents show no sign of slowing down

Data of first four months of 2017 points to some alarming trends

LAHORE: Efforts of the Lahore traffic police and Punjab Government have borne no fruits as evident from the rising the number of road accidents in the provincial metropolis. A comparison of the road accidents data of 2015, 2016 and the first four months of 2017 shows zero respite in the number of casualties.

According to figures available with The Express Tribune, 123 people have been killed and 15,218 more injured in 14,965 road accidents in the first 116 days of the ongoing year. A total of 10,752 – or 70% of the total – were admitted to hospitals in an unstable condition by the Punjab Emergency Service aka Rescue 1122.



In 2016, 328 people were killed and 46,246 were injured in 45,094 accidents during the entire year. A total of 32,518 victims (72%) arrived at hospital in an unstable condition. In 2015, 308 people were killed and 49,025 got injured in 46,268 road crashes with 34,098 of them admitted to hospital in critical condition.

When the accidents and losses are calculated, data shows the causalities are on the rise. In 2015, 308 people lost their lives in road accidents while the figure jumped to 328 in 2016. In the first 116 days of 2017 alone, 123 people have been killed.



When per day averages are extrapolated, the data predicts that deaths may rise to 387 by the end of 2017. That would be 79 and 59 more deaths than 2015 and 2016 respectively.

As far as road accidents involving underage drivers are concerned, 4,988 such offences took place in 2015; 4,717 in 2016 while 1,608 have been reported in 2017 so far. The rate of such incidents was 14 per day in 2015, 13 in 2016 and 14 in 2017.

Motorcycle-related accidents have also seen no decline as there were 25,018 crashes involving two-wheelers in 2016; 23,681 in 2015; and 7,481 in 2017. The per day average translates to 65 in 2015, 69 in 2016 and 65 in 2017.



There has been no decline as far as the drivers’ recklessness is concerned. A total of 11,547 road accidents occurred due to speeding in 2016, 14,898 in 2015 and this figure already stands at 3,998 this year.

The data shows that such accidents occurred at a frequency of 31 per day in 2016 and 34 in 2017. Carelessness as a cause of road accidents also shows no slowing down as 10,759 accidents were attributed to it in 2015, 11,350 in 2016. The current year has so far seen 3,499 such accidents.

Taking wrong turns as a cause for an accident was 9,083 in 2015, 10,388 in 2016 and 3,162, thus far, in 2017. According to per day calculations, 25 such crashes occurred in 2015, 28 in 2016 and 27 will take place in 2017. 14,965 road accidents

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2017.