LAHORE - Speakers at a road safety conference yesterday called for effective planning and implementation of traffic rules to curtail fatal road traffic accidents.
They said that road mishaps causing 1.3 million deaths across the world and 14,000 die in accidents in Pakistan annually. Most of the victims appear to be young persons.
The National Highways and Motorways Police (NH&MP) organized the conference in Lahore on Thursday. People from different walks of life participated in the conference.
DIG Mirza Faran Baig was the chief guest of the conference while representatives of transport unions, rescue 1122, Lahore Transport Company, goods transport, students and teachers of different educational institutions were among the speakers.
Speaking on this occasion, Mirza Faran Baig said that road safety should be made part of the school syllabus to improve safety which is currently far below than the magnitude of problem. He said, “We are unaware of road sense as a nation while the absence of 3-Es – education, law enforcement and engineering – especially law enforcement and road user’s behavior being the major stakeholder, were causing accidents on roads.”
He went on to say that more than 80 percent accidents occur due to the fault of drivers and remaining 20 percent due to the mechanical faults. He added over speeding, careless attitude, underage driving, use of drugs while driving, fatigue, and lane violation are also the major factors behind fatal accidents. GM (NHA) Hafiz Ahmad Bukhsh said that NHA with the coordination of Motorway police had always maintained the standard of road engineering and infrastructure road safety in Pakistan. He further added road traffic crashes should not be accepted as inevitable because they are, in fact, both predictable and preventable. SSP Masroor Alam Kolachi also spoke on this occasion.
