In Lahore, you must fight for your right to be on the road

Sharp increase in number of motorists leads to deaths.

LAHORE:

On the streets of Lahore, you have to fight for every inch of space you wish to take.

“Over the years, the number of vehicles on the road has increased so sharply, it has triggered a cutthroat struggle between motorists as they try to keep moving forward,” explains Chief Traffic Officer Tayyab Hafeez Cheema. Dozens of accidents are reported here daily, but Cheema says these are isolated incidents, not major accidents. Due to the tightly packed traffic on the roads, motorists are forced to move slower, thus preventing any pile-ups or deadly collisions.

“Some old roads in the city are not suitable for the heavy flow of traffic here and this causes accidents at times,” Cheema said. He says flawed engineering, broken roads and poorly designed road networks contribute to such accidents.

In Lahore, deadly road accidents are reported on Raiwind Road, Ferozepur Road and in the Niaz Baig area largely due to speeding or negligence on the part of motorcyclists who do not adhere to the rules when overtaking vehicles, Cheema says.



Imran Shah, spokesperson for the National Highway and Motorway Police says accidents on the motorways are largely caused by mechanical faults in the vehicles, such as the opening of tie rods, brake failure, bursting of tyres and other mechanical faults. “Human errors are also one of the major causes of road accidents on the highway,” Shah says.

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