Road accidents declined in the capital in 2014

Islamabad, traffic police disagree over casualty figures.

ISLAMABAD:

Despite contradictions in the number of casualties between the statistics provided by the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) police, road traffic accidents have decreased in the capital last year.

According to the ITP’s comparative statement of fatal and non-fatal accidents, 65 people died and 90 were injured in 2014, as compared to 86 killed and 135 injured in 2013.

The police statement, however, revealed that 110 people died and 101 were injured in 2014 while 125 lost their lives and 104 sustained injuries in 2013 in the capital.

The most auto accidents took place in the limits of Shahzad Town, Sabzi Mandi and Tarnol police stations. The ITP statement revealed that 12 people died in Shahzad Town while 11 in Sabzi Mandi. The police statement, however, said 18 people lost their lives in the former while 11 each in Sabzi Mandi and Tarnol.

The ITP officials said that speed violation tops the causes of accidents and there is a dire need for enforcement of speed limits. However, ITP has only seven functional speed checking radars out of the 65, yet it managed to issue 8,868 speeding tickets last year. Officials say they aim to reduce accidents through intense enforcement of law in 2015.

Rawalpindi’s ‘black spots’

Rescue 1122 Rawalpindi has recorded around 41,265 accidents in the last 10 years, out of which 8,283 took place in Rawalpindi in the year 2014. Waqas Rahman, an official of Rescue 1122 Rawalpindi, said that the Expressway and IJ Principle Road have been declared ‘black spots’ due to high number of road accidents here.



Rescue officials make sure that an ambulance is always parked at the Faizabad interchange, which connects both roads, due to consistent crashes taking place in the area. Rahman said Rescue 1122 had also suggested points where speed breakers and signals should installed, adding that this reduced the number of accidents around black spots and other areas.

Rawalpindi’s Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) SSP Shoaib Khurram Janbaz said over speeding, poor road infrastructure and ignorance of traffic rules and regulations were the major causes of road accidents. “Our focus is on ensuring that people fasten their seat belts, wear helmets, avoid using mobile phones while driving and their vehicle fitness is up to the mark,” he said.

Janbaz said Rawalpindi traffic police have launched awareness campaigns, and arranged workshops to educate people about traffic laws. “In special drives, drivers are being educated about traffic and safety rules.”

In order to reduce the number of accidents, he said that the traffic wardens have been deployed at every signal, signal lights have been fixed and police have built speed bumps at different spots.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2015.