Reckless driving claims 7 lives

Six of the victims were aged between 18 and 26 years

LAHORE:

At least seven people lost their lives and several others were left injured in road accidents in less than 12 hours in the metropolis on Friday.

As per details, the recent case was reported on Friday morning when a speeding car rammed into an electric pole near Pak Hero Factory in Chung. Five youth were travelling in the vehicle heading to Chung from Bhobtian Chowk. Near Pak Hero Factory, the vehicle reportedly lost control due to over speeding and rammed into an electric pole.

The front of the vehicle was severely damaged. The injured were shifted into a nearby hospital where doctors pronounced three of them dead on arrival. The deceased were identified as Tayyab Sajjad 20, Muhammad Arfan 18 and Muhammad Ali 18. Two of the victims are undergoing treatment in a hospital. They have been identified as Abdullah 23 and Waqas 26. The other incident in which two motorcycles collided with each other was reported in Harbancepura on Friday midnight. At least three people were travelling two motorcycles.

They reportedly were busy in one-wheeling. Suddenly, their motorcycles collided with each other. As a result, all the youth fell suffered injuries. The injuries proved fatal for and the youth died on the spot. The third injured was shifted to a nearby hospital for treatment. Later, in the day, an old man was hit to death by a van in Green Town. The victim identified as Aslam was travelling on a motorcycle. As the motorcyclist negotiated turn near Shera Town, a van coming from the opposite direction hit him. The victim fell and suffered fatal injuries.

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The injuries proved so critical that the victim died on the spot before any medical aid. Police collected forensic evidence from the crime scene and recorded statements of the eye-witnesses. Another road accident claimed the life of a man in Manga Mandi on Friday. The victim identified as Anwar, 19 a resident of Sanda was driving a vehicle that was hit by a bus. Such a tragic incident claiming innocent lives have turned out to be the norm of the day. Almost daily on average a victim is losing life due to these recurrent RTCs.

On Thursday, a 30-year-old unidentified man died in a road accident in Kahna. He was trying to cross the road near Gajjumatta. Suddenly, a speeding car hit him. He received serious fatal injuries and died. The same day, at least six people died, whereas 1012 were injured in 926 Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) in other districts of Punjab. Out of this, 596 people were fatally wounded. Road accidents are increasing with each passing day. A few years back, an average of 700 road traffic crashes was reported daily across the province. However, within less than four years the average of RTCs has crossed 900 accidents daily.

An analysis of the data provided by the Punjab Emergency Service (PES) for 2020 showed that at least nine people lost lives in 897 average road accidents daily in Punjab last year. The data for the first 70 days of 2021 (January 1 to March 11) revealed that the figure jumped to 12 deaths and 920 accidents daily in the ongoing year. The analysis of data compiled by the PES showed that at least 614 people died and 69,077 were injured in 62,851 road accidents till March 11, 2020. However, in the ongoing year, the numbers grew drastically as 818 people lost lives, 69,076 were left injured in 62851 RTCs till March 11.