‘Nearly 1.3m people die in accidents annually’

Walks, workshops across province mark World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

LAHORE: “Nearly 1.3 million people die annually and over 50 million sustain crippling injuries due to the traffic accidents. Approximately 90% of these deaths occur in developing countries such as Pakistan,” said Rescue 1122 Chief Information Officer Deeba Shahnaz Akhtar.

She expressed these views in a statement issued on Sunday, to mark World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. The occasion was observed in all districts of the province in memory of the victims of road crashes, their families and communities.

“The service has rescued over 2.7 million victims of road accidents across Punjab so far. The rescue service is singlehandedly managing 900 road accidents on a daily basis,” she explained. “Road crashes have been observed as the leading cause of injuries since the inception of the Punjab Emergency Service in 2004,” Akhtar added.

Out of 2.7 million people injured in accidents, 280,381 victims sustained head injuries, 48,042 had spinal injuries, 238,663 suffered multiple fractures, 413,956 had single fractures while 1.7 million sustained minor injuries.

Akhtar also stated that 79% of the victims were males and 21% were females. Moreover, 31,558 people had died in accidents across Punjab. “Around 40% of the accidents were caused by speeding, 33% by careless driving and an additional 8% by violating traffic rules,” she added.

She stated that road accidents occur every 1.6 minutes in Punjab. Of these, 83% involve motorcyclists.

“Traffic crashes increased by 25% in 2018 as compared to 2017,” she explained. She stated that all motorcyclists need to be vigilant and drive carefully, wear helmets, keep the speed limit at 50 km/hr and drive on the left side of the land to reduce the number of accidents.

Law enforcement agencies need to come forward to implement road safety laws and take immediate measures for the enforcement of a driving licensing system, traffic engineering, vehicles fitness system, vehicle registration, database and management system.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2019.