LAHORE - The Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) commemorated World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Crashes Victims on Sunday across Punjab.
The purpose to mark this day is to remember the many millions killed or injured in road crashes and their families and communities, as well as to pay tribute to the dedicated emergency services, police and medical professionals who daily deal with the traumatic aftermath of road death and injury.
In this regard, the Director General, Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) Dr. Rizwan Naseer directed all the District Emergency Officers (DEOs) on this day, we need to make a commitment to reduce this major cause of death amongst young breadwinners of our society, which is leading to a huge socio-economic burden on the economy of Pakistan.
He directed the DEOs to create awareness and train community members to adopt preventive measures for safety of human life. Dr. Rizwan Naseer further said that 1.3 million people die each year and over 50 million get disabled due to road traffic accidents and 90% of these deaths occur in low income and middle income countries like Pakistan where only 48% of the world's registered vehicles exists.
According to the statistics, in Pakistan, Rescue 1122 alone has managed over 760000 road traffic crashes in past years. He further warned that if some concrete steps are not taken at this stage on priority basis then within next few years, every family would have been affected by road traffic accidents.
He further emphasized that thinking needs to be changed through media that an accident is not just a will of God, but mostly takes place due to negligence of the driver or a fault in the vehicle or the road or a road user.
The Director General further said that during discussions with the stakeholders and review of laws, an interesting observation has been found that although there is the Motor Vehicle Ordinance for motorized vehicles but there is no effective legislation to cover other road users like slow moving carts and pedestrians. “We also need to train every person how to use the road and also start a driver licensing program before issuing a license to any driver in all provinces,” he stated.