RESCUE 1122 ORGANIZES AWARENESS WALK

Lahore: The Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) in collaboration with Transport & Road Safety Foundation organized an awareness walk in commemoration of World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Crashes Victims from Shama Chowk to Emergency Services Academy, Lahore on Tuesday. The purpose of the event was to raise awareness about increasing number of road traffic crashes and community participation for prevention of these emergencies. The awareness walk comprising on school children and rescuers started from Shama Chowk, Ferozepur Road, and culminated at Emergency Services Academy. DG Rescue Punjab Dr. Rizwan Naseer led the walk, which was participated by President Transport & Road Safety Foundation K. Z Khushali, community members and members of civil society. The walk aimed to remember the many millions killed or injured in road crashes and their families and communities, as well as to pay tribute to the dedicated emergency services, police and medical professionals who daily deal with the traumatic aftermath of road death and injury.

While addressing the ceremony, the Director General, Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) Dr. Rizwan Naseer presented the statistics of road traffic crashes in Punjab. According to the data, all District Emergency Services have rescued the victims of some 959600 road traffic crashes in all 36 Districts of Punjab so far. “Road Traffic Crashes are major cause of death in young breadwinners of the society,” he said, adding we need to make a commitment to reduce this major cause of death, which is leading to a huge socio-economic burden on the economy of Pakistan. Dr. Rizwan Naseer further said that 1.3 million people die each year and over 50 million get disabled due to road traffic accidents and 90% of these deaths occur in low income and middle income countries like Pakistan where only 48% of the world’s registered vehicles exists. DG Rescue Punjab further warned that if some concrete steps are not taken at this stage on priority basis then within next few years, every family would have been affected by road traffic accidents. He also emphasized that typical mindset needs to be changed through media, as mostly accidents take place due to negligence of the driver or a fault in the vehicle or the road or a road user.

The President Transport & Road Safety Foundation K. Z Khushali said that road traffic crashes are affecting each family in Pakistan, but unfortunately media did not focus on such incidents considering them individual cases. He said that Rescue 1122 is doing a commendable job by educating the community members to sensitize them about road traffic crashes. He further suggested different programs should be launched to create awareness about this leading cause of death amongst youngsters at school and college level. Furthermore, media men should give prime priority by focusing on road traffic crashes for general welfare.