HARIPUR: District police officer Kashif Zulfiqar has said an education section was being created within the police’s traffic wing to conduct awareness sessions for drivers and students in Haripur about traffic laws.

He told reporters here on Wednesday that the adequate strength of traffic wardens and facilities like traffic lights and signboards had own importance but unless drivers and other road users had traffic sense, the public life would remain vulnerable to accidents.

“Realising the importance of education of traffic laws, the new section is being created for awareness,” he said. The DPO said highly-educated cops would get support from volunteers and organise sessions for transport drivers of almost all routes about traffic rules.

“This is not a time-bound activity and instead, it will continue forever,” he said. About delay in the installation of traffic lights at different points witnessing frequent traffic mess, the DPO said it was part of Haripur beautification plan and the TMA was the plan’s executing agency, which had promised action on it within few months.

He said the chief minister had approved an additional strength of 650 police officials for Haripur district, who were expected to join the force before the end of the current year to help improve the flow of traffic in the city.

ACCIDENT: A man was killed and another injured in a road accident near Mirpur turnaround here on Wednesday. The police said a van was on the way to Khanpur when it collided head-on with a passenger vehicle near Mirpur turnaround on Khanpur Road injuring the van driver and a passenger.

The residents shifted the injured to the trauma centre but one of the injured, Mohammad Saqib, a resident of Muzzaffarabad, succumbed to head injuries.

The police said injured Haji Pervez was admitted there for treatment.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2021