ESA Becomes Platform For Professional Training To Rescuers: PES DG

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Dec, 2020 ) :-:Emergency Services Academy has become a platform for providing professional training to rescuers of all provinces of the country.

This was stated by Director General, Punjab Emergency Services (PES) while talking to APP here on Saturday.

He said that South Asian countries could also get benefit from the training facility of the academy.

He said that the team of Emergency Services Academy (ESA) had become the first United Nations International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) certified team in South Asia for international disaster response.

The ESA had trained over 19,000 rescuers for Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Baluchistan and Aman Foundation Karachi since 2004.

He said that Rescue-1122 Punjab had rescued over 8.8 million victims of emergencies since its inception in October 2004. He informed that Punjab Emergency Service provided emergency service 86,821 people while responding to 88,441 emergencies in all 36 districts of Punjab during the last month.

The DG said that out of total emergencies, 29679 were traffic crashes, in which, 363 people were killed in Punjab in November, adding that 10,302 were seriously injured who were shifted to different hospitals of Punjab, whereas, 21,957 people with minor injuries were treated on the spot.

The DG Rescue Punjab emphasized that Rescue drivers must be careful and ensure wearing a mask to protect themselves from corona, safe driving while responding to emergencies as a life savior is not allowed to risk another life when he is going to save someone's life.

He shared that in November, the Rescue 1122 served 29679 road traffic accidents, 46521 medical emergencies, 1412 fire incidents, 2152 crimes, 59 drowning incidents, 35 building collapses, 15 explosions/cylinder blast and 8568 miscellaneous operations. He said that the data revealed that the majority of fire incidents occurred in major cities, involving 289 fires in Lahore, 103 in Faisalabad, 104 Rawalpindi, 95 in Gujranwala, 74 in Multan, 54 in Sialkot, 47 in RY Khan, and 47 in Kasur,adding that 6370 traffic accidents were reported in Lahore, 2736 in Faisalabad, 2322 in Multan, 1710 in Gujranwala, 1703 in Rawalpindi, 1189 in Bahawalpur, and 989 in Sahiwal.

Dr Rizwan Naseer highlighted that a significant number of road traffic crashes could be prevented by adopting road safety measures and road safety laws. The DG Rescue requested the motorbike drivers to drive the motorbike in the extreme left lane with a maximum speed limit of 50Km/h.He urged the motorbike users to must wear properly strapped safety helmets and also use the side mirrors and indicators while changing the lane.

He said that the people should take it seriously because over 80 per cent of accidents injuries are associated with motorbikes.

He appealed to the citizens that they never allow their underage children for driving any vehicle. He also appealed to the citizens to give timely emergency calls at the Rescue helpline 1122 in case of emergency.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Rescue Service started as a pilot project from District Lahore to ensure human resource development of long-neglected emergency service in Pakistan.