Rescue-1122 Responds To 311,444 Road Accidents In 2020

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Jan, 2021 ) :Director General Punjab Emergency Service (PES) Dr Rizwan Naseer on Tuesday reviewed emergency data of road traffic accidents taking place during the outgoing year 2020 to evolve a strategy to suggest evidence-based measures to minimise the road traffic crashes (RTCs) in 2021.

He was presiding over the annual performance review meeting of the Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) in all districts of Punjab at Rescue Headquarters. He said that despite COVID-19 lockdown, holidays in educational institutions, there was 0.67 per cent increase in the number of accidents compared to accidents in 2019.

The DG said that the Rescue Service rescued 34,5421 victims while responding to 311,444 RTCs during 2020 in all districts of Punjab. Rescue provided post-crash response to over 2.

7 million road traffic crashes since its inception. He announced that Rescue would start 2021 with the commitment to establish healthy, safe and resilient communities by recommending evidence-based measures to be taken by related organisations to avoid emergencies.

Head of Operations Ayaz Aslam briefed the meeting that maximum accidents, 66,319, were reported in Lahore, followed by 29,068 in Faisalabad and 24,884 in Multan district. Lowest numbers of 753 accidents were reported in Murree. The data also revealed a decrease in accidents in all districts except in District Kasur, Mianiwali, TT Singh, Bahawalnagar and Murree.

The analysis of data revealed over-speeding was the leading cause of accidents (44.84%), followed by careless driving (32.95%), wrong turns (10.41%) and others causes 11.71 per cent.