Police and safety experts on Tuesday stressed the need to develop and implement road safety measures at government level saying awareness campaigns could reduce traffic accident related deaths and causalities in the country.
Talking to PTV during an awareness lecture, Deputy Inspector General National highways and Motorway police Jan Muhammad said education wing had been making efforts to spread road safety awareness among public specially youngsters to secure traveling for commuters on highways and motorways. Traffic rules awareness is essential for every citizen as amateur under age drivers put not only others’ but also their lives in danger,” expert pointed out.
He said the government is committed to strengthening the road network and ensuring safety and convenient mobility of people through arranging awareness programs in schools. He added that traffic crashes have become a global epidemic and government authorities around the world including Pakistan are working hard with a combination of awareness, behavior and infrastructure strategies to reverse this deadly trend through traffic safety initiatives.
He said road safety is the priority of the NHA and the students are deemed to be the best source of road safety education. Therefore, our department started the road safety education programme and campaigns continued from school, college and university level, he added.
He said through road safety awareness program on school level, they could reduce accident rate, especially by targeting youth. He highlighted the importance of road safety i.e. seat belt, helmet, over speeding, lane violation, precautions during long journey and other traffic regulations on highways.
He also mentioned that through Radio FM programs and mobile units they are educating our public including students, truck drivers, motorcyclists and pedestrians and endeavouring to teach them how to adopt safety measures on major roads and highways. Director Highways Noor Mustafa added that traffic rules should be made part of the school curricula so that youth could be educated about the benefits of disciplined driving.
He lauded the initiative of National Highway and Motorway Police in Pakistan for creating public awareness about defensive driving techniques and hoped that it would promote disciplined driving in the country. He stressed that collective efforts are meaningful to better understand and deal with road safety challenges. He said both road accidents and casualties from accidents increased alarmingly over the past few decade due to lack of knowledge of traffic rules and negligence in abiding by laws by drivers, passengers and pedestrians alike.—APP
