Seven minutes: Rescue 1122 maintains average response time

There is a dire need for effective enforcement and implementation of road safety laws

LAHORE: Punjab Emergency Service Rescue 1122 claims to have rescued 81,952 victims of different emergencies in 81,454 rescue operations across Punjab last month. Also, the service has maintained its average response time of just seven minutes.

This was revealed during a review meeting of rescue officers, chaired by Punjab Emergency Service Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer, at Rescue 1122 headquarters at Thokar Niaz Beg on Friday.

The DG was told that the emergency calls to which Rescue 1122 responded to included 25,000 road traffic accidents, 46,104 medical emergencies, 1,168 fire incidents, 1,575 crimes, 21 drowning incidents, 28 building collapses, 20 explosions and 7,538 miscellaneous operations.

The statistics revealed that majority of fire incidents occurred in major cities, including 284 fires in Lahore, 145 in Faisalabad, 80 in Rawalpindi, 56 in Multan, 60 in Gujranwala and 38 in Sialkot. Similarly, 6,251 traffic accidents were reported in Lahore, 2,379 in Faisalabad, 1,658 in Gujranwala and 1,871 in Multan and 763 in Rawalpindi.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Naseer said there was a dire need for effective enforcement and implementation of road safety laws in order to prevent accidents. “Rescue service is responding to an average of 750 road traffic crashes across Punjab on a daily basis, which involves more than 900 people.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2018.