Emergency Services Punjab Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer said that there has been an alarming increase in the number of road traffic crashes in Punjab as Rescue 1122 alone managed an average of 943 road traffic crashes daily in Punjab.
This shows that every 1.6 minutes there is a road traffic crash resulting in average 9 deaths and average 540 serious injuries daily in Punjab. Unfortunately, around 83% of these road traffic crashes involve motorcycles causing a huge socio-economic impact on society, he said. The DG emphasized that this alarming increase has necessitated to review the contributing factors of road traffic crashes and identify the gaps in the implementation of road safety laws.
He shared these views while presiding over a meeting of UN-Global Road Safety Week from May 8-14, held at Rescue Headquarters on Friday. All heads of wing of headquarters and academy attended the meeting. They also paid rich tribute to all those emergency responders include rescuers, police, medical professionals, and others who deal with the traumatic aftermath of road crashes daily.
While reviewing the emergency data of 2019, DG Rescue Punjab said that Rescue Service has responded over 2.4 million road traffic crashes since its inception in October 2004. In 2019, a total of 344104 road traffic crashes occurred and 3346 people died in those accidents. Besides that 197065 victims were reported seriously injured last year. DG Rescue Punjab expressed that road traffic crashes can be reduced significantly by adopting some necessary safety measures by the public, which includes driving a motorcycle with a maximum speed limit of 50 km/hr, always drive a motorcycle in extreme left lane, wear properly strapped helmet and use side mirrors while driving.
