08 November 2004	Monday	24 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Nov 7: A 27 per cent rise has been witnessed in the involvement of trucks, trailers and dumpers in fatal accidents during the January-October period this year compared with the corresponding period of the previous year.

According to the traffic police statistics, 103 trucks, trailers and dumpers were involved in the accidents in which 114 people died during the 10-month period. In the corresponding period last year, such vehicles were responsible for the deaths of 81 people in 75 accidents.

The data shows that 536 people lost their lives in road accidents this year as against 527 during the 10-month period in 2003.

However, the number of the accidents, involving such heavy vehicles, during the first 20 days of Ramazan appeared several times high compared with the figures of the period in the previous year. Last year, the figure was four in which four people had died whereas this year the number of such accidents has risen to 11 and the number of deaths to 12.

People's spontaneous reaction to recent accidents also appeared unusual. In most cases, enraged people took to the street and, besides raising slogans against the government, they burnt the vehicles involved in the accidents. Some youths even chased a killer vehicle to set it on fire. More than 15 vehicles have so far been burnt during Ramazan. This phenomenon was not witnessed in the past.

Taking notice of the situation, DIG Traffic Yameen Khan imposed a ban on the movement of dumpers during daytime and peak hours. However, they were allowed to do their business during night, from 11pm to 6am.

During the first 20 days of Ramazan, 37 people lost their lives in 36 fatal accident whereas 58 got injured in 28 non-fatal accidents. In the corresponding period of the year 2003, 54 people were killed in 50 fatal accidents and 54 were injured 35 non-fatal accidents.

The data shows that 64 per cent commercial vehicles including buses, coaches, minibuses, trucks, dumpers, trailers and water/oil tankers were involved in fatal accident during the 10 months of this year. In the previous year, their involvement in fatal accidents remained at 66 per cent.

Sources said there were numerous complaints about reckless driving by the drivers of dumpers and oil/water tankers. A traffic police official estimated the number of dumpers and tankers plying on the city roads at 6,000. Of them, almost 700 are registered with the Motor Vehicles Registration Branch and possess fitness certificate, according to him. "The remaining vehicles bearing registration numbers of a place other than Karachi are not registered with the local MVR Branch."

Officials have been stressing the need for formulating an effective system to register the water tankers entering the city from other provinces. They maintain that such vehicles bearing registration numbers of other provinces or districts do not fall in the city's tax net. They are of the view that these vehicles are responsible for the fatal and non-fatal accidents as well as wear and tear of roads.

The DIG Traffic said: "We have now introduced the police vehicles with video-camera fitted in them to film rash driving. This will help check excessive speed of vehicles which is a major cause of accidents."

He said that a full-fledged campaign against rash driving would be launched after Ramazan. The violators would be challaned and their vehicles impounded, he added.

Mr Yameen Khan recalled that Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad had visited Nagan Chowrangi two days back and noticed a defect in the design of the intersection. He said the governor had directed the city government to redesign the intersection where most of the accidents in Ramazan had occurred. The governor, he added, also directed the city government to draw lanes on roads and remove encroachments for a smooth flow of traffic.

Mr Khan said that he had written letters to the managements of almost all the school in the city asking them to furnish the data of school vans. He also appealed to parents to inform him if their children faced seating problem in their school vans. "It is mandatory on the school van operators to ensure safety of the children by providing a seat to every child travelling in their vehicles. We will also take stern action against those school van drivers who will violate the law," he added.