Road safety: A day after fatal accident, ITP plans to train transporters
The death of three young men on the Islamabad Expressway due to apparent negligent driving in the past three days seems to have waken the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) up.
The police announced on Sunday that they will instruct public transporters and government school drivers on safe driving practices. Officers of the ITP will conduct the training sessions. The step, the ITP believes, will help make roads in the city safer.
“The drivers of educational institutions and those giving pick and drop facility to students will be focused,” said SP (Traffic) Chaudhry Khalid Rasheed.
He was addressing the concluding ceremony of a two-day road safety workshop arranged for drivers of Islamabad Model Colleges at F-7/3 Boys’ College. The SP said that the aim of these training sessions is to inform people about the traffic laws.
“A minor negligence of a driver can cause an accident and endanger the lives of many,” said the SP, a point that is underlined by two accidents on Islamabad Expressway since Friday that claimed the lives of three young motorcyclists, two of whom were below the legal driving age.
In the accident on Saturday, a young man was killed after his motorcycle was hit by a speeding Toyota Hiace attempting to overtake from the wrong side on the busy expressway. The motorcyclist got entangled with the right side mirror of the van, hit the van’s windshield headfirst and fell onto the road near the Zero Point Interchange. He died before the doctors could give him medical aid. On Friday, a cab driver hit and killed two teenaged motorcyclists near Shakrial on the expressway, again apparently due to negligent driving.
With heightened emotions during Ramazan, better understanding of road laws is a necessity. This is what Rasheed tried to emphasise in his speech. He said the ITP is utilising all available resources striving to provide safer journey to road users.
During the workshop, an ITP team delivered lectures in various sessions focusing on defensive driving, parallel parking and respecting rights of others on roads.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 23rd, 2012.
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Instead of delivering lectures to the drivers, I think ITP should first focus on itself. This organization has completely failed to perform its duties regarding road safety and smooth and peaceful driving conditions.
Instead it has become a mean of money-making. This scenario has become the biggest cause of of traffic problems in Islamabad.
I have noticed that they enforce only those laws which involve handsome ticket amount. You will never see them anywhere during traffic jams and rush hours, but you will easily find them hiding behind a tree in search of those not wearing seat-belts.
Closure of roads and crossings is another big problem created by ITP. They have destroyed the whole road-system of this very well planed city.
I request authorities to take notice of ITP first if you want to overcome the traffic problems.