KARACHI: Youths urged to educate public about traffic rules: Seminar on road safety
KARACHI, June 18: Sindh Education Minister Prof Anita Ghulam Ali has said the Education Department will extend full cooperation to the traffic police in its efforts to create awareness among children about traffic rules and regulations.
She was speaking at the inaugural session of a one-day workshop on Road Safety, which was organized by the National Highways and Motorway Police here on Tuesday.
Prof Anita said students of colleges and higher secondary schools should also be involved in educating the people about traffic rules. This way they could play a vital role in the society, she added.
She stressed the need for creation of greater awareness about traffic laws among the youths.
The minister suggested to the Highways and Motorway Police to install traffic signs, guide signs and traffic awareness signs on highways to keep drivers alert.
She emphasized the need for provision of first-aid and medical facilities at the National and Super highways as part of the road safety programme of the traffic regulating authorities.
Prof Anita appreciated the holding of the workshop and observed that the step was essential for creating a public- friendly environment as well as for sorting out the outlying social problems.
She assured the organizers of the workshop that the government would give due consideration to the recommendations and suggestions of the workshop.
Prof Anita particularly highlighted the role of electronic and print media in creating public awareness about traffic rules and regulations.
Earlier, the inspector-general of the Highways and Motorway Police, Ziaul Hassan Khan, said that according to a survey report, Pakistan has one of the highest rate of traffic accidents in the region in which about 7,000 lives were lost every year.
He said the main reason for the alarming state of accidents rate was the lack of awareness about road safety and careless driving.
The National Highways and Motorway Police, he said, was making sincere efforts in ensuring road safety and minimizing accidents.
Because of the efforts, he said, during the last one year on the N-5 sectors of the National Highway, which also includes Karachi-Hyderabad sector, the rate of road accidents had decreased by more than 50 per cent and the crime rate on the highways, especially robberies and dacoities, reduced by almost 100 per cent.
He said three factors had been identified as major causes of the chaotic condition on our roads: Poor awareness about traffic laws and rules; dilapidated condition of roads; and inadequate and at times poor enforcement of traffic laws.
DIG traffic Saud Mirza presented recommendations of the workshop which included establishment of provincial and federal road safety committees, participation of the masses in road safety campaigns, imparting first-aid training to the police and other personnel, setting up of incident reporting centres, imposition of excess load control, establishment of vigilance committees for control of speedy vehicles, provision of rest to drivers after five hours of duty.
It also called for inclusion of road safety and traffic discipline education at school level, necessary amendments in laws pertaining to provision of first-aid to injured before registration of an FIR and establishment of trauma centres at all major hospitals.—APP/PPI
