Motorcycle accidents have turned into a common occurrence on the streets of Punjab, taking the spot for the province’s most reported traffic collision category. The rescue department believes that these accidents are a result of negligence towards traffic rules, over-speeding on highways, reckless stunts like one-wheeling, and an increase in underage drivers.
Conversely, the surge in the volume of motorbikes on the roads, stemming from amplified demand, production, and sales of the two-wheeled vehicle, is another reason behind the increase in accidents. This has to do with multiple bike-hailing and instant delivery services that took wing during the pandemic. It is believed that owing to loss of employment, tens and thousands of people signed up to work for these services, and part of the duty meant zipping through the city come rain or thunder to make the delivery within a set, fleeting time. “When you are bound to deliver food from one end of the city to another within 20-30 minutes, rash driving seems like the only way to make it,” said Shumyl, a Lahore resident who often uses one such delivery application to order grocery.
Per official reports, during the three months of 2022, the 36 districts of Punjab saw the highest number of road accidents involving motorcycles: over 64,964 in total. This means that the province has witnessed over 725 accidents every day. Out of all the cities, Lahore appears to top the chart with over 12,860 accidents since January. Whereas other major cities like Faisalabad, Multan, and Gujranwala recorded 4,232, 6,251, and 4,244 accidents respectively.
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In comparison, the year 2021 recorded a total of 306,809 motorcycle accidents across Punjab, out of which over 53,109 accidents accounted solely for Lahore. This could also be reasoned with the fact that the streets of Lahore, one of Punjab’s busiest cities, grace more than six million motorcycles on its streets every day. Within that, over 3.2 million motorcycles are those that come beyond city limits, from areas like Shahdara, Kasur, Okara, Patoki and others.
The Lahore Traffic Police had submitted a report to the Lahore High Court regarding these accidents, owing to which the penalty rate has been fixed to Rs2,000 in a bid to reduce the rate of road accidents in the city.
Lahore Traffic Police Chief Montazer Mehdi believes that this has proven to be a viable solution, and accidents in the city have started decreasing due to the increased fines. “In addition, traffic wardens have been assigned duties on major highways to educate the people on traffic rules. Our wardens also visit schools and colleges to educate and inform young people about traffic laws, and all of this, supplemented by increased probing, appears to be yielding encouraging results,” the chief commented.
On the other hand, however, the city’s motorcyclists seem to find the increased traffic fines rather unjust and draconian. “These challans have become too expensive to pay. The police should also consider letting go of people with a warning based on intent but instead, they oftentimes fine us for no reason at all,” expressed Muhammad Usman, who believes that motorcyclists like him are endangered by long vehicles and big cars and their drivers go scot-free in case of collision.
Some citizens were also of the view that the traffic police should increase their probing to keep reckless drivers out of Lahore’s highways. “No one without a license or a helmet should be allowed to drive a motorcycle anywhere in the city. In addition to that, the hooligans who perform tricks on the streets like one-wheeling and create a ruckus every Saturday night, should also be reprimanded immediately,” said Naveed, a resident of Lahore while talking to The Express Tribune.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2022.
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