Accidents ‘cause Rs100b loss’ to exchequer annually

At 30,000 a year, Pakistan’s accident fatality rate highest in the region, says NHA official


Sehrish Wasif August 24, 2017
PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD: At around 30,000 a year, Pakistan has the highest accident fatality rate in the region that causes an annual loss of Rs100 billion to the national exchequer, claims a senior official of the National Highway Authority (NHA).

Speaking at an event ‘Traffic Safety Awareness in Pakistan’ on Wednesday, NHA director highway safety Tabjeel Ashraf said that a single accident “is estimated to cost Rs400,000 which is a huge burden on the national economy”.

Many people are left disabled as well in road accidents, he said, without giving an exact figure.

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Stephen Proctor, an international consultant belonging to the UK-based TMS, expressed grave concern over the alarming increase in the number of road accidents in Pakistan.

He believes that the main causes behind the rise in the accident fatality rate in Pakistan includes overspeeding, reckless driving, traffic rules violations, teenage drivers, poor vehicle condition, untrained drivers and overloading.

In his address to the participants, Chairman NHA Shahid Ashraf Tarar said, “Every year we lose a huge number of precious lives to road accidents.”

He said many lives could easily be secured through effective implementation of the National Road Safety Plan which had been recently launched in collaboration and cooperation of the Wafaqi Mohtasib.

Tarar said there could be no two ways about the increasing importance of road safety, especially at a time when the country was witnessing its largest-ever activity of road infrastructure development in the shape of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) where projects worth over $14 billion were under execution.

Railways suffered 338 accidents in four years

He said improved road connectivity had enhanced the importance of implementing better traffic safety measures in Pakistan and the NHA was fully cognisant of the need to make human lives more secure by making travelling even safer.

The NHA chairman informed the participants that motorways are generally considered safer for travelling owing to higher road safety standards.

“A good example in this regard is the Karachi-Hyderabad Superhighway. The highway, which was known in the past for frequent accidents, had hardly witnessed a major accident since its conversion to a motorway,” he said.

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