Daily Times

The Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) kicked off ‘UN Global Road Safety Week’ from 8-14 May in all 36 districts of Punjab to reduce road accidents and creating awareness among the public about road safety measures. In this regard, an awareness campaign has been launched across Punjab and its ambitious target to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries, which would be continued until May 14.

In accordance with, 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 an average of 540 serious injuries daily in Punjab. He said that unfortunately, around 83 % of these road traffic crashes involve motorcycles causing a huge socio-economic impact on society. He emphasized that this alarming increase has necessitated reviewing the contributing factors of road traffic crashes and identifies the gaps in the implementation of road safety laws.

These views were shared by Director-General Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122), Dr Rizwan Naseer while presiding over a meeting of UN-Global Road Safety Week from 8-14 May 2020, held at Rescue Headquarters here on Monday. All Heads of Wing of Headquarters and Academy attended the meeting. He 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.

At this occasion, Dr Rizwan Naseer said that Rescue 1122 has responded over 2.4 million road traffic crashes since its inception in October 2004. He said that during the year 2019, a total of 344104 road traffic crashes occurred in which 3,346 people died in these accidents. Besides that, 197,065 victims were reported seriously injured last year. He expressed that road traffic crashes can be reduced significantly by adopting some necessary safety measures i.e driving a motorcycle with a maximum speed limit of 50 km/hr, always drive a motorcycle in the extreme left lane, wear properly strapped helmet and use side mirrors while driving. “We are there to Rescue you but please drive carefully; your family is waiting for you at home,” DG urged. He maintained that it was our collective responsibility to decrease the number of crashes by following traffic rules and raising awareness.