Emergency services in districts reviewed

LAHORE: Secretary Emergency Services Department (ESD) Dr Rizwan Naseer reviewed the operational performance of all districts on Thursday.

Regional Emergency Officers (REOs), District Emergency Officers (DEOs) of Punjab participated via video link and the Administrator ESD, Deputy Director Operations, Provincial Monitoring Officer, heads of the wing, senior officers of the ESD were present in the meeting. All DEOs shared their operational performance of their districts.

The meeting was told that Rescue 1122 rescued 172,176 victims and responded to 176,401 emergencies across the province during the last month. The meeting was told that out of 176,401 emergencies 113,827 medical emergencies, 41,371 road traffic accidents, 3,950 crime incidents, 3,449 delivery cases, 2,793 fire incidents, 1,638 occupational injuries, 1,034 animal rescue, 83 drowning cases, 31 structural collapses and 8,740 miscellaneous cases were reported from across the Punjab.

The meeting was informed that 327 people died in 41,371 road accidents in Punjab last month and 8,383 road accidents took place in Lahore wherein 30 people died. The meeting was told 2,955 road accidents occurred in Faisalabad, 2,612 in Multan, 2,333 in Gujranwala, 1,581 in Sheikhupura and 1,423 in Rawalpindi while remaining 22,084 accidents happened in other districts of the province.

The participants were told that 574 fire incidents occurred in Lahore, 181 in Faisalabad, 146 in Multan, 141 in Sheikhupura, 117 in RY Khan and 116 in Rawalpindi. After a detailed review of the emergency data, Dr Rizwan expressed his serious concern over 327 deaths of people in 41,371 road traffic crashes in April. He requested motorbike riders to adopt the road safety measures and reduce their speed limit as per International love-30 campaign adopted all over the world.

He directed all the District Emergency Officers (DEOs) to educate citizens to avoid illegal parking and especially the commuters about extra care while crossing tractor-trolley during crushing season of sugarcane.

He urged the public to abide by all relevant rules and regulations of traffic before driving your motorcycle or any kind of vehicle. He directed the DEOs to develop coordination and liaison with the National Highways and Motorways Police to combat hurdles created by un-attendant vehicles on fast-moving traffic roads.