Safety measures stressedto check road accidents

LAHORE: Punjab Emergency Service Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer has said road accidents have become a leading cause of deaths during emergencies.

He said road crashes could be significantly reduced and millions of lives can be saved through an effective enforcement of traffic laws and taking appropriate measures of road safety.

According to a press release while presiding over a monthly performance review meeting of emergency operations held at Emergency Services Headquarters here on Monday, he appealed the citizens and all stakeholders to join hands with rescue 1122 to reduce road accidents. He also appealed to the parents that they have to play their social responsibility and don’t allow their underage children to drive motorbikes or cars. The meeting was attended by all head of wings and senior officers of Emergency Services Academy.

The DG issued instructions to all District Emergency Officers (DEOs) to ensure physical fitness of all rescuers, cleanliness of all emergency vehicles and Rescue Stations. He also directed uniform standards of the service and smooth services delivery without any discrimination.

The head of operations briefed the director general about the emergencies dealt during the month of March 2019. He briefed that Punjab Emergency Service rescued 100,347 victims while responding to 99,730 emergencies and maintained its average response time of seven minutes in all districts of Punjab. Out of 99,730 emergencies, 30,637 road traffic crashes were reported in March in which 263 precious lives were lost.

The DG said the Rescue Service was responding over 988 road traffic crashes in Punjab on daily basis in which average 1,121 people get injured or disabled daily. He pointed out that around 50 per cent accidents could be prevented by adopting 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.

The emergency calls to which Rescue 1122 responded to include: 30,637 road traffic accidents, 56195 medical emergencies, 1049 fire incidents, 2425 crimes, 94 drowning incidents, 52 building collapses, 16 explosion and 9262 miscellaneous operations.

According to the statistics, the majority of fire incidents occurred in major cities, including 240 fires in Lahore, 99 in Faisalabad, 64 Rawalpindi, 62 in Gujranwala, 59 in Multan, 30 in Sialkot, 31 in Sargodha and 23 in DG Khan. Similarly, 7292 traffic accidents were reported in Lahore, 2784 in Faisalabad, 2443 in Multan, 1722 in Gujranwala, 1082 in Bahawalpur, 914 in Rawalpindi and 997 in Sahiwal.