Road accidents proving deadlier than terrorism

Islamabad

Road accidents are proving deadlier than the incidents of terrorism in Pakistan whereas untrained, aggressive and careless drivers are proving deadlier than the terrorists. In recent week, more than 50 people lost their life because of aggressive and unpredictable driving of bus drivers.

According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, last ten years data indicates that the number of people lost their lives in road accidents was much higher than the victims of terrorism as on average 15 people died every day in accidents across the country in last decade, analysis of the official data suggests.

The recent three accidents, one in Mianwali when a passenger bus collided with a truck on April 07 claiming more than twenty lives, the second one in Karachi one a passenger coach collided with a trailer on Super Highway near Karachi toll plaza on April 09 killing almost half a dozen people and the third one on Wednesday when a bus collided with truck near Faisalabad which killed more than 20 people on the spot have raised eyebrows of the authorities concerned to amend the laws regarding irresponsible driving.

All the three accidents are the result of aggressive and careless driving of bus drivers who never care about the passengers as well as the other traffic on the road. Tragically, the recent two out of three accidents involve the same district (Layyah) where almost none of the public transport drivers is properly trained and aware of the traffic rules. 

There is no proper mechanism of issuing driving license specially to the public transport drivers as whoever has sources in the polices can easily obtain a commercial or Heavy Traffic Vehicle (HTV) driving license without even proper test.

The last 10 years data on traffic accidents present a horrific picture as average 15 people died every day in traffic accidents across the country. Sindh proved the deadliest in terms of average people killed in accidents, followed by Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Muhammad Akram 22, a resident of Bangla Nasir Khan, a small village in Layyah, is one of the victims who lost his life on April 13’s accident of Faisalabad. He was the sole bread-earner of his family who used to work as laborer in a factory and was coming from Lahore after three months.

“Akram Bhai married just six months ago and went to Lahore in January to rejoin the factory job after spending three months at home after his marriage. He telephoned us and asked my mother and bhabi if they needed anything from Lahore and my mother just said, “Putar menoo kuch nahi chahida bss tu aa ja itna hi kaafi hai” means they need nothing and it’s a pleasure that he was coming. However, we never knew we will receive our brother’s mutilated body in few hours”, Muhammad Aamir younger brother of Akram said while talking to The News.

He informed that Akram’s body was in such a bad shape that nobody recognized, whereas his mobile was also broken in the accident. Rescue workers and police then took out the SIM from his mobile and after tracing his family they called and asked us to collect his body from Faisalabad.

“We thought somebody was befooling us as just a couple of hours ago Akram had talked to us. However, when we heard the accident’s news on TV my mother fainted and we still cannot believe what happened with us,” said Aamir.

According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data on traffic accidents in Pakistan from 2004 to 2013 the ratio of killing in road accidents in Sindh was recorded the highest as the percentage of killing in road accident in Sindh was recorded up to up to 86 percent. 

The overall ratio of killing in road accidents across the country has been recorded up to 55 percent which according to the experts and former traffic police officials are highest.

Official data shows that a total of 51,416 people have died in 97,739 road accidents across the country whereas almost 40,000 people lost their lives in terrorism related incidents. Even then the traffic accidents have always been an under-reported issue in the country.

Out of the total number of casualties, as much as 29,524 were killed in 51,715 accidents in Punjab, 9,639 died in 13,965 accidents in Sindh, 9494 people were killed in 27,939 accidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 2,250 people died in Balochistan in 4085 accidents. Out of the total number of accidents, 43,582 accidents were recorded as fatal which is 47.3 percent of the total accident.

While analyzing the data further in order to know the ratio of people killed per accidents across the country, it is found that the ratio of killing per accident is 55 percent in last ten years across the country. Similarly, the ratio of injured people per accident is much higher than the number of people killed is as much as 125 percent per accident.

This correspondent has further analysed the data at provincial level according to which Punjab province is on top in terms of number of accidents, casualties and people injured in the traffic accidents. As per data the number of accidents in Punjab is 52 percent of the total accidents. 

The data further shows that the average number of people died per accident in percentage in Punjab is up to 60 percent which is the second highest in the country. Similarly the number of injured people per accident is recorded up to 129 per cent.

Mr. Muhammad Ajmal, a road safety expert, says lack of proper training of public transport drivers, poor system of license issuance and careless and aggressive behavior is the major cause of such accidents. 

The government needs to adopt a policy following the licensing policy of developed countries by introducing point system. It should immediately cancel the license of a driver if he is involved in a fatal accident and reduce his points on violation of traffic laws.

“Normally these drivers are unmoved and careless because they have no fear of law as they know they will not be held accountable even if they kill people in accident as the license holder driver normally gets bail in a couple of hearings. All the government needs to do is improving the legislation and introducing a strict punishment. There should be no bail for them if they are involved in a fatal accident”, commented Mr. Ajmal.