CAREFUL DRIVING BEFORE IFTAAR CAN REDUCE TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS DURING RAMADAN: DR RIZWAN NASEER

Lahore: The Director General, Emergency Services, Punjab Dr. Rizwan Naseer asked the road users to show patience and avoid rash driving during Ramadan especially before Iftaar when most of the accidents are reported. He made this appeal after reviewing the data regarding road traffic accidents during Ramadan. During review it transpired that Rescue 1122 was managing over 500 accidents every day and most of the accidents during Ramadan took place before Iftaar due to the impatient attitude of drivers. Therefore, the DG appealed to the citizens especially the motorists to show patience and tolerance and never lose temper during this holy month of Ramadan especially while commuting just before Iftaar.

 Therefore, he directed all the District Control Rooms to extra vigilant before Iftaar timings and an Emergency Officer must supervise the emergency operations near Iftaar timing in all Districts of Punjab to ensure that all accidents are managed in the most proficient manner. Furthermore, the Provincial Monitoring Cell established at Rescue 1122’s Headquarters is holding video conference with all District Emergency Officers on daily basis and also ensuring round the clock remote monitoring of all District Control Rooms through IP based cameras especially during Iftaar & Sehri timings.

 The review further revealed that over 40 percent of the total emergencies managed by the Punjab Emergency Service are road traffic accidents which can be easily prevented. These accidents have become the leading cause of death & disability amongst young breadwinners resulting in significant socio-economic impact. Furthermore, according to World Health Organization, the number of road traffic deaths in low income and middle income countries is expected to increase by 80% from 2000 to 2020. Dr Rizwan Naseer said that if we wanted to prevent accidents we needed to change our thinking that accidents are not accidents but these are crashes which take place due to either the fault of the driver, fault in the vehicle or in the road or due to other road users. Only if we identify these factors and improve planning & enforcement we can prevent accidents.