2.6 million tickets issued to violators of traffic rules in 2018

The Karachi traffic police have managed to control traffic violations in the city with a higher number of tickets (challans) in 2018 than the previous year. Similarly, fine collected from the violators by the police so far has also exceeded the last year’s figure.

However, despite various steps taken by the traffic police to ensure safe driving in the city, the frequency of fatal and non-fatal road accidents remained high in 2018.

Talking to The News, Karachi Additional IG Dr Amir Ahmed Shaikh expressed concern over the number of traffic accidents reported in the city during 2018. He said he had issued directions to the Karachi traffic police to improve their performance and control the number of accidents occurring in the city due to the violations of traffic rules.

Dr Shaikh, however, appreciated efforts being made by the traffic police during the year regarding the implementation of traffic laws. The number of tickets issued to violators of traffic rules this year has been higher than previous years, he said.

The total number of challans issued to traffic rules’ violators so far in 2018 is 2,566,516 in which a total fine of Rs622.25 million was imposed, the Karachi addl IG said, adding that the number of traffic tickets issued in 2017 was 2,408,560 in which a total of Rs574 million fine was imposed.

Against the fine of Rs622.25 million imposed during 2018, the traffic police collected as much as Rs585 million, which is around Rs45.34 million more than the amount collected in the head of fine in 2017.

Dr Shaikh explained that when he was serving as the Karachi traffic DIG, he introduced a reward system for traffic sergeants under which they received some share of money from the tickets they would slap on traffic rules violators.

The Karachi addl IG said he had issued a directive to the current traffic DIG, Javed Ali Mehar, to revive the system again and announce rewards for those officials who had performed their duties well and issued a high number of challans.

DIG Mehar, who assumed his office two months ago, has also been asked by Dr Shaikh to issue directives to to his subordinates to not spare any vehicle or commuter whosoever if they violated traffic laws.

District-wise data

Commenting on the district-wise performance of the traffic police in Karachi, a senior official of the traffic police said in terms of the number of traffic tickets issued in 2018, the traffic police of District South ranked first as they had issued 574,393 tickets amounting to Rs134.92. The average number of traffic tickets issued per day in District South has been 1,574.

He added that District West came second in this regard with 491,988 challans issued so far, with an average of 1,348 challans per day. The total amount of fine imposed by the District West traffic police so far this year is Rs118.06 million. Meanwhile, the District East traffic police came third with issuing 457,129 tickets and imposing a total fine of Rs109.99 million.

The traffic police have also categorised the traffic sections of the city based on their performance. According to the rankings, the top 10 traffic sections of Karachi include Haq Nawaz Traffic Kiosk, Airport, Pak Colony, Cantt, SITE, Gizri, Mithadar, Ferozeabad, Mominabad and A Haroon Road South; whereas, the worst 10 traffic kiosks in the city right now are those of Khalid Bin Waleed, Jackson, Mochko, Soldier Bazaar, Awami Colony, Manghopir, Pirabad, Akbar Road, Ibrahim Hyderi and Mauripur.

The traffic police have also compiled the data of kinds of vehicles against which action was taken. According to it, 14,142 buses were issued tickets this year. Similarly tickets were issued to 10,160 Datsuns, 6,482 dumpers, 109,672 mini-buses and coaches, 165,677 cars, 734,104 motorcycles and 217,148 rickshaws.

Violations

In terms of various violations of traffic rules which caused issuance of tickets, wrong-way driving came first as 822,126 challans were issued for it. As many as 32,893 tickets were issued for breaking traffic lights, 515,143 for driving motorcycles without safety helmets, 70,569 for driving without licence, 19,024 for rash and negligent driving, 8,352 for passengers on roof, 13,032 for using mobile phones and 1,525 for emitting excessive smoke.

The traffic police also initiated a special campaign in November against violations of one-way roads. As many as 93 spots were reported where one-way violation occurred and 1,150 FIRs were registered against the violators under the Section 279 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The official said the traffic DIG, in his directives issued to the district SPs, had identified various issues that could be resolved at the district level, including removal of temporary encroachments, removal of double and triple charged parking and removal of illegal parking from no parking areas.

The directives also included coordination with the deputy commissioners for the allotment of impound yards and action against the CNG-fitted inter-city buses and school vans.

Accidents

As many as 183 fatal and 53 non-fatal accidents have so far been reported in Karachi in 2018, in which 208 people were killed and 178 injured. Most of the fatal accidents, 49, occurred in District West, while 34 fatal accidents took place in District East, 27 in District Malir, 26 in District Central, 21 in District South, 20 in District Korangi and six in City District.

Most of the casualties reported in accidents were those of pedestrians, followed by cyclists, motorcyclists, drivers and passengers. Most of the fatal accidents were caused by over-speeding buses, mini-buses, trucks, trailers and tankers.

An expert advice

An expert in the field said that the major causes of accidents include rash and negligent driving, illegal encroachments on roads, unavailability of pedestrian bridges, absence of zebra crossings and installation of fancy grills at major thoroughfares, which fall within the domain of departments under the city administration.

According to the expert, in many cases where pedestrian bridges and zebra crossings exist, people often avoid using them and eventually fall victim to traffic accidents. It is also frequently noticed that many roads of the city do not have proper stop points and zebra crossings and buses usually stop on the centre of roads to pick passengers, the expert said.

The expert suggested to the city government that it revive the old Traffic Awareness Programme and educate the public regarding traffic rules from time to time.