LAHORE: The Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) is going to commemorate “World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims” tomorrow (on Sunday), which is globally commemorated on the third Sunday of November each year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) report on the Global Status of Road Safety-2018 highlights that the number of annual road traffic deaths has reached 1.35 million. These deaths are many times more than those occurring due to any disease like Covid-19 or other reason.

A study report prepared by Punjab Emergency Service head of community safety and information Ms Deeba Shahnaz Akhter highlighted a perspective and significance of the issue. Ms Deeba who is also Member United Nations Classified Pakistan Rescue Team, shared details of her study through an article.

She said the road traffic injuries had now become the leading killer of people aged 5-29 years. She said the burden was disproportionately borne by pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists, in particular those living in developing countries.

“The main objective of WDoR is making it a major advocacy day for road traffic injuries prevention,” she said. She said this is the 25th anniversary of start of observing the WDoR.

Research shared on eve of day to remember victims

It also attracts attention towards 17 Sustainable Development Goals in which one of the main indicator of health, SDG 3.6 is related to decrease in the number of deaths due to the road traffic accidents.

She said the cumulative toll of road traffic injured and casualties was truly terrific. Each year, approximately 1.3 million people die the world over and over 54% of deaths are associated with motorcyclists, cyclists, and pedestrians.

“It is also an interesting fact that Low Income Countries have 1 % of the world’s vehicles but 13 % of all deaths,” reads the report. On the contrary, High Income Countries have 40% of world’s vehicles but 7% of all deaths, she said.

The world over, every 24 seconds someone dies on the road as per the WHO, she said. In Pakistan, she said, an accident occurring every 1.6 minutes and Rescue 1122 is managing an average 970 road traffic crashes daily in Punjab.

As per the objective of WDoR 2020, evidence based recommended priority steps to improve road safety in Punjab are ‘Reduce the maximum Speed Limit of Motorcycle to 50 km/hr, Dedicated Motorcycle Lane, Standardized User Friendly Helmet; Ensure Enforcement, Provision of safe economic, dignified light public transport and implementation of standardized Driver Licensing Program’.

According to statistics, says the report, the Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) responded to over 2.6 million road traffic crashes in Punjab since inception in 2004 and emergency data revealed that 83% RTCs are associated with motorbikes.

“An average 970 families get traumatized daily when their solely responsible person of the house gets injured or died in the road crashes,” she said.

Declaring it a burning issue in which hundreds and thousands of people die in road traffic crashes, Ms Deeba Shahnaz said it’s the need of the hour to play a decisive role by everyone, particularly by media, to prevent people from traffic deaths.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2020