Punjab: Head trauma most common road accident injury

Rescue 1122 statistics show bike-related incidents constitute majority of road accidents

LAHORE: Head trauma is the second most common injury sustained during road traffic accidents. Data compiled by Rescue 1122 shows that in 2018, bike-related incidents constitute an overwhelming majority of road traffic accidents in the province.

Statistics show that 241,549 accidents have been reported in the province in 2018 so far. In these incidents, 277,372 people were injured; 223,080 (80.42%) sustained minor injuries while 54,929 (19.57%) sustained major injuries.

Out of the 54,929 who were seriously injured, 54.24% (29,448) sustained head injuries. In the provincial capital, around 5,408 victims, 35.41% of those seriously injured, sustained serious head trauma.

Medical officers and traffic police officials have claimed that such numbers can be drastically reduced if commuters start using helmets.

While Section 89 (A) of the Provincial Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1965 has made helmets compulsory for all motorcyclists, very few motorists actually implement this law while driving.

A few weeks ago, Justice Ali Akbar Qureshi of the Lahore High Court (LHC) issued directive to the chief traffic officer (CTO) ordering him to take indiscriminate action against motorcyclists who were riding bikes without helmets.

Abdullah Malik, a citizen, had filed a petition before the court. In his petition, Malik had highlighted that the ratio of dead and injured motorcyclists was inversely related to the amount of people who wear helmet.

During the proceedings, the judge asked the CTO to appear before the court and directed him to implement traffic rules strictly.

In the aftermath of the instructions from LHC, City Traffic Police Lahore (CTPL) launched a campaign enforcing the use of helmets at Mall Road. CTPL had placed barriers at 32 different points to stop motorcyclists who were not wearing a helmet, barring them from going any further.

Extra wardens had also been deployed for this campaign, while banners had also been placed along the roadside forbidding bikers from refraining to use helmets.

However, despite these extreme measures some startling facts came to light during a single eight hour shift on one of the major thoroughfares in the province; 1,276 motorcyclists were fined at Mall Road during the first shift while 800 were fined in Anarkali Circle. CTPL issued challans to at least 5,315 bikers without helmets in Lahore.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2018.