RAWALPINDI: Road traffic accidents in Rawalpindi city reached 234 so far this year, resulting in 126 fatalities and 261 injuries.

A police official said the number of fatal and non-fatal accidents was three times higher than the incidents reported to the police by the victims.

He attributed the increase in the number of traffic accidents to loopholes in traffic laws and slow pace of court proceedings.

“Many people prefer to forgive or make a patch-up than involving the police and going to court,” he said.

Road traffic accidents are caused by driver’s errors, mechanical defects, speeding and damaged roads while the road lane character is also considered as a factor contributing to accidents. Traffic mess on roads is also one of the factors that contribute to accidents.

According to the city traffic police statistics, 234 road traffic accidents were reported to the police from January 1 to September 30, 2022. Of these, 114 were fatal and 120 non-fatal, resulting in the death of 126 people and injuries to 261 others besides damaged to property.

The highest road accidents - 35 - reported to the police in April. In these accidents, 16 people died and 39 were injured.

The second highest number of accidents was 33 reported to the police in May - 21 fatal and 12 non-fatal - which claimed 25 lives and left 33 people injured.

In June, the number was 18 with six deaths and 18 injuries.

A former chief traffic officer (CTO) attributed the increasing deaths on roads to underage motorcycle riders and negligence of their parents who allowed them to drive the two wheelers, one way violation and use of cell phone while riding a motorcycle.

He partially agreed that poor enforcement of law was also among the major factors of road traffic accidents and said people needed to be educated about traffic laws in schools and colleges as well as warning to motorists by the traffic police to follow traffic rules or face action.

He said that he had observed that evening and night time traffic accidents were higher than in the daytime.

The former CTO said female drivers were more cautious since they never engage in speeding. And female drivers involved in an accident were likely to have less experience than a male driver.

He said though road lane character was also one of the factors contributing to accidents, a majority of accidents occurred in a straight road rather than in intersections.

When other drivers are not paying enough attention to the road in front of them, many car accidents occur. When a traffic light turns yellow, some drivers don’t have the patience to wait for the traffic light; they instead increase their speed, which results in an accident, he said.

The most frequent causes of traffic accidents are human errors, including speeding, using a cell phone while driving, not wearing a seatbelt or a helmet, and driving while distracted.

Sometimes it looked as if there was no traffic police in the city while driving a vehicle because drivers, especially public service drivers, are seen violating traffic laws on the busiest intersections and main roads right in front of traffic wardens.

Despite repeated attempts, Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Naveed Irshad was not available for comments.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2022