LAHORE: PUNJAB Emergency Service Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer led a motorbike safety awareness rally on “Left Lane Awareness” organised by the safety wing of Emergency Services Academy (ESA) in collaboration with a private company to prevent increasing number of motorbike traffic crashes, which are over 80 % of the total road crashes. He said motorbike accidents have become silent killer and one of the leading causes of accidents, so it was need of the hour to prevent such accidents by raising awareness, enforcement of traffic laws and improvement of road engineering. The rally started from MuslimTown rescue office followed by the route Canal Road, Jail Road, Tollintonmarket and culminated at LOS Rescue 1122 Head Office. Managing Director of private company Zafar Iqbal, ESA Head of Safety Wing Muhammad Ahsan, Lahore District Emergency Officer ShahidWaheed Qamer, officers from headquarters, academy, city traffic police, rescue scout and large number of rescuers participated in the rally. The DG Rescue shared the statistics of road crashes with media representatives and participants of the rally. He said Rescue 1122 has rescued over 2.1million victims of emergencies since its inception.
The Rescue 1122 is responding to over average 900 road accidents on daily basis in which more than 80 per cent were motorcyclists.
While expressing the significance of the left lane, he said accidents could be prevented or reduced by adopting common safety measures; drive motorbike in extreme left lane, ensure wearing of safety helmet with proper straps, maximum speed less than 50km/h and proper usage of the side mirrors.
He also requested the media and all stakeholders to join hands with rescue 1122 to reduce road traffic crashes. Zafar appreciated this initiative of Rescue 1122. He said his company would support rescue for making this campaign successful.