Bikers advised to slow down

The National Highways and Motorways Police (NH&MP) and Punjab Emergency Service have launched a campaign urging motorcyclists to maintain a safe speed.

Rescue 1122 Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer said at a ceremony that the campaign's title 'Love-30' meant the motorbike drivers should drive on highways and main roads at not more than 30 kilometres per hour.

A video for convincing motorcyclists to use helmets was also launched at the ceremony held to launch the campaign with the cooperation of an oil marketing company.

Dr Naseer said the Rescue 1122 responded to at least 1,000 road accidents in Punjab daily, of which over 83% involved bikes.

He said wearing helmet and driving at a reduced speed could result in a substantial reduction in the number of accidents.

He added that the use of helmet cold help reduce the number of deaths in accidents by 40% and injury risk by 70%.

NH&MP Additional IG Mehboob Aslam said several campaigns had been launched to reduce accidents. Under a campaign on motorways named 'No more', if a vehicle did not stop after a rule violation despite a signal, it was followed and intercepted.

Campaigns had also bee launched to follow lanes and use helmets on highways, he said. Due to the campaign, the number of helmet users had substantially increased and fatal accidents decreased.

Rescue 1122 data shows that over 72 per cent of the over 1.98 million victims of trauma attended by the service between January 2013 and March this year had been affected by road traffic crashes (RTCs).

In 83.33% cases, the victims were travelling on motorbikes. As many as 43.84% incidents were of collision between bikes.

The victims suffered head injuries in 9.82% of the cases.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2022.