LAHORE: At least 426 people have been killed and thousands other injured due to traffic accidents in the provincial capital during the current year, thus exposing the inefficiency of the authorities concerned to manage traffic in the city, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Like previous years, the traffic police could not bring any change in improving the traffic system. Despite launching various traffic awareness campaigns, traffic accidents have increased as compared to last year when roads accidents claimed the lives of 328 people.
From January 1 till December 24, the traffic authorities recorded 45,094 accidents in Lahore alone, averaging six deaths, 906 injuries and 884 accidents every week. The number of accidents in 2015 was 46,268, with 940 injuries in 887 accidents per week on average.
According to rescue sources, more than 30,000 accidents, out of the total 50,000, were caused due to the negligence of drivers, rash driving and underage driving. Data showed that at least 4,000 accidents were caused due to signal violation.
Among 51,000 injured people, more than 70 per cent were found unconscious when rescue officials approached them. During the current year, more than 10,000 accidents were reported due to negligence of rikshaw drivers.
A senior official of city traffic police, while admitting the department’s failure in managing the traffic, said that the city traffic police was not solely responsible for this large number of accidents and causalities, but the responsibility also fell on town planners for developing poor infrastructure.
“There is no doubt that the rising number of accidents has reached an alarming point, but the traffic police alone cannot be accused for this failure,” he said while talking to Pakistan Today.
He was of the view that despite being issued traffic violation tickets, people intentionally ignored the traffic rules which caused the accidents. Officials admitted that traffic awareness campaigns could not bear fruit unless a proper mechanism was adopted.
“Punjab government is planning to add an extra subject regarding traffic rules in school syllabus and this would hopefully bring a change in the system,” he added.
