Increase inroad accidents reported

LAHORE: The Punjab Emergency Service director general has said that rescue service responded to over 1,000 road accidents daily in Punjab in August 2019, showing a visible increase in the number of road accidents as compare to the number of accidents in previous months in which Rescue 1122 dealt an average 900 road crashes on a daily basis in the province. On average 1,157 people get injured or disabled across Punjab. Motorbikes were involved in 80 per cent road accidents.

He expressed these views while presiding over a monthly performance review meeting of all emergency operations across Punjab at Rescue Headquarters on Tuesday to ensure uniform standards of the service and smooth service delivery without any discrimination.

The DG was informed that Punjab Emergency Service rescued 141,290 victims while responding to 107,409 emergencies with an average response time of seven minutes in August 2019 across the province. Out of 107,409 emergencies, 31,468 were road accidents in which 261 precious lives were lost.

Rescue 1122 responded to 31,468 road accidents, 58,464 medical emergencies, 920 fire incidents, 3,251 crime incidents, 209 drowning incidents, 98 building collapses, 11 explosions (cylinder blasts) and 12,988 miscellaneous operations.

According to the statistics, the majority of fire incidents occurred in major cities, including 229 fires in Lahore, 90 Rawalpindi, 105 in Faisalabad, 69 in Multan, 46 in Gujranwala, 34 in Sialkot, 29 in Rahim Yar Khan and 13 in Sheikhupura.