Punjab Emergency Service Department remembers road accidents victims

LAHORE: Punjab Emergency Service Department (Rescue 1122) Sunday commemorated World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims in all districts of Punjab.

The WDoR was observed with theme ‘Act for low speeds/ act for low speed streets.’ The objectives of WDoR 2021 are to provide a platform for road traffic victims and their families to remember all people killed and seriously injured on roads, acknowledge the crucial work of the emergency services, advocate for better support for road traffic victims and victim families and promote evidence-based actions to prevent and eventually stop further road traffic deaths and injuries.

Emergency Services DG paid rich tributes to all emergency responders including rescuers, police, medical professionals and others who deal with the traumatic aftermath of road crashes daily.

In this regard, awareness walks, seminars, rallies, and workshops were organised at all district headquarters of Punjab to raise awareness among citizens for the prevention of road traffic crashes in accordance with the new Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021–2030.

The DG said that the service has so far responded to over 3 million road traffic crashes in Punjab since the inception of the service in 2004, whereas Rescue Service alone is managing over 1000 road crashes daily.

The data further revealed that an accident occurs after every 1.6 minutes in which around 83pc traffic crash victims are associated with the motorbikes. A total of over 3 million RTCs were reported in the last 17 years out of which 3.5 million people were injured. Out of these injured of RTCs 372,004 had head injuries, 61,290 had spinal injuries, 231,406 had Multiple Fractures, 537,776 had single fractures, whereas fortunately 230,3562 (65pc) were minor injured. Males were the most vulnerable road users as 80pc of the victims while only 21pc of females were affected in road traffic crashes, whereas 37,679 died at the site of accidents in Punjab. Over-speeding was the leading cause of accidents (41pc), followed by careless driving (32pc), wrong turns (8pc), and other cases 19pc. Whereas 2805 cases of wheelie were reported.