At least 11 persons died and more than 1,000 received injuries in different road accidents in the provincial capital during three days of Eid.
During three days of Eidul Fitr, situation on the roads remained disturbing as massive traffic gridlocks were witnessed on different roads of the city, exposing poor planning of the Lahore Traffic Police.
A huge traffic mess was witnessed on Canal Road on the last two days of Eid as frenzied youths riding motorcycles harassed and inconvenienced commuters with their acrobats. The road observed the worst traffic jam with long queues of vehicles stretching more than five kilometres.
The situation remained disturbing on other major roads including Jail Road, Mall Road, Multan Road, Ferozpur Road, GR Road, Allama Iqbal Road and Wahdat Road where people covered distances of few kilometres in hours.
Several clashes erupting from road rage were reported from various parts of the city as commuters frustrated by the traffic jams and hot weather engaged in verbal and physical clashes with each other.
According to Rescue 1122 sources, 11 dead bodies and over 1,000 injured people were rushed to different hospitals of the city.
According to sources, most of the injured and dead were one-wheelers while other accidents were also caused by motorcyclists. Rescue officials said that during the three days of Eid, they carried out around 2,000 rescue operations.
According to reports, eight bodies were brought to Lahore General Hospital, two to Services Hospital while one was moved to Jinnah Hospital. On the other hand, 325 injured were rushed to General Hospital, 158 to Services, 118 to Jinnah, 210 to Mayo and 275 to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
Capital City Police Officer Ameen Wains said in a statement that police has lodged 80 cases against one-wheelers, adding that 145 bikers were arrested while 180 motorcycles were also impounded. The police also registered 31 cases and arrested 57 people who were found misbehaving with families and harassing women who were out to celebrate Eid in parks and other public places.
Prior to Eid, the city traffic police had claimed to have finalised the traffic plan to maintain the traffic flow during Eid holidays. They said that 3,000 traffic cops would be deployed on different roads of the city while at least 366 wardens would be deputed outside public parks to prevent traffic congestion.
However, the traffic police failed in its job as long queues of vehicles were seen stranded on all major roads leading to public parks.
The traffic police spokesman was contacted for the department’s comment on the matter but he did not respond to the phone calls.
