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Friday March 29, 2024

Road accidents deaths reduced by 15.34pc during lockdown in Punjab

By Ali Raza & Arshad Dogar
April 23, 2020

LAHORE:With the coronavirus lockdown, the death radio of road accidents has been reduced by 15.34 per cent in first four months of the current year as compared to the same period of pervious year.

The unsafe roads of the province have turned safe during the coronavirus shutdown. Similarly, provincial metropolis has also witnessed a sharp decrease of 23.59 per cent in road accidents as most of the citizens are under lockdown for the last several weeks. Data collected from 1122 from January 1, 2020 till April 21, 2020 revealed that 68 deaths were reported in Lahore in comparison of the previous year’s 89 death during the same months.

Data showed that in Punjab, a total of 1,056 people were killed in road accidents in first four months while during the same period of the year 2020 the number reduced to 894. This clearly showed that the death rate in road accidents reduced due to the lockdown imposed in February’s last week in 2020.

The total number of road traffic accidents in Punjab in first four months of 2020 was 90,728 in which 100,420 people received injuries which were 18.44 per cent and 20.06 per cent lesser than the previous year’s accidents and injuries to citizens, respectively. Whereas in Lahore total accidents were 20,890 and injured were 20,647, which were 22.04 per cent and 25.40 per cent lesser than previous years 26797 and 27679 respectively.

So much so that in first four months of 2019 as many as 48 joy riders were killed in road accidents where as in the same period of 2020, as many as 18 joy riders who left their quarantine during Covid-19 lost their lives. In Lahore it was 2 deaths in 2019 and 2 deaths in 2020.

As the lockdown also stopped local as well as interprovincial public transportation across the province, the accident ratio of buses, vans and rickshaws were also reduced by 51.33 per cent, 51.67 per cent and 29.93 per cent respectively as compared to the previous year’s data.

Similarly, accidents of cars, bikes, tractor trolleys and trucks also reduced by 30.82 per cent, 10.83 per cent, 40.52 per cent and 41.16 per cent respectively while in Lahore this ratio reduced by 67.85 per cent, 3.38 per cent, 98.10 per cent and 80 per cent respectively.

The data showed that police struggled hard to restrict the numbers of motorcyclists to come out on to roads during the lockdown but they remained on roads whereas tractor-trolleys were totally stopped in the city.

Data further showed that cases of tyre burst in Punjab in 2019 were 849 while in 2020 they were reduced to 484, which showed a reduction of 42.99 per cent while in Lahore it was 270 in 2019 and only 4 in the first four months of 2020.

This also showed that the allegations that puncture workers used to throw nails on roads to get more customers are somehow correct because majority of puncture shops were closed down in the city.

On the other hand, ratio of dead bodies brought to the graveyards in the provincial metropolis has reduced. Bashir Ahmed, in charge security Miani Sahib, while talking to The News revealed that in routine 20 to 25 bodies were brought to the biggest graveyard (Miani Sahib) before the pandemic. He said since the lockdown the number is reduced to 8 to 10 bodies. Aslam, a gravedigger of Green Town Graveyard, said only 2 bodies were brought to the graveyard in April so far. Mujahid, a grave digger in Model Town Graveyard said the number of bodies has reduced.

Spokesperson of District Administration also confirmed that there are almost 900 big and small graveyards in the provincial metropolis and number of bodies brought to these graveyards during lockdown has been reduced in comparison with routine. He said besides road accidents, deaths in other incidents have also been reduced during the lockdown.