Poor safety measures resulting in road accidents: Dr Shahid

RAWALPINDI: Dr Muhammad Shahid, a road safety expert has said poor safety measures and lack of coordination between various government departments responsible for ensuring road safety in Pakistan has led to an increase in traffic accidents and subsequent deaths.

Pakistan, like the rest of the world, celebrated the International Day of Victims of Traffic Accidents on Tuesday.

According to a Dr Muhammad Shahid, several letters were written by the public and other NGOs to the heads of various government departments for ensuring proper coordination to improve traffic control but none of them responded.

“Despite our best to improve traffic control, we are the first to be blamed for traffic mess,” he said. Shahid said that more than  50 percent of traffic accidents can be prevented by adopting basic safety measures, including wearing a helmet and driving within the speed limit.

It is worth mentioning here that in a city as big as Lahore, gridlocks and road accidents are primarily due to ill-planned roads and faulty traffic control mechanisms. As many as 280 people had died in various cities of Punjab in 29,000 road-related accidents, said Rescue 1122 Director General (DG) Rizwan Naseer.

CTP officials said that there are 7,800,000 motorcycles in Lahore and 800,000 rickshaws and most of them do not adhere to traffic rules. They also said that the department has identified a lack of parking spaces as a common factor in the accidents taking place in different areas.

CTP Public Relations Officer (PRO) Rana Arif said that while the department is trying to control and manage the city’s traffic, the ultimate responsibility comes down to the people who show negligence on roads.