KARACHI, June 27: Traffic police department is considering imparting training of first-aid to accident victims on its officials.
Sources in the department said that first-aid kits, comprising equipment, instruments and medicines, would be provided to the officials and proper training in handling all sorts of accident cases on the spot would be imparted to selected trainees.
The plan is aimed at making maximum efforts to reduce fatalities in road accidents and provide immediate relief to those injured slightly or seriously before shifting them to nearest hospital.
“We have planned the training programme following complaints that accidents victims often remain unattended, writhing in agony, and those critically wounded lose their lives due to profuse bleeding,” said a senior official of the department. The officials, he added, would undergo a complete training that included reaching the scene of an accident promptly, handling the situation and providing first-aid as well as immediate and necessary treatment to check bleeding.
The DIG Traffic, Yameen Khan, said that training would be imparted on the department’s field officials and that a first-aid box would be placed at each of the 64 traffic sections in the metropolis.
He said that the department had also asked the city government that the personnel assigned to control traffic at different intersections, in hot and humid weather condition, be provided umbrellas. However, he added, the same were not arranged for as yet.
Mr Khan said: “We have requested a private entrepreneur to design a specific type of umbrella that could rotate with the sun’s movement so that the policeman under the umbrella could remain under its shadow without moving it in the sun’s direction.
Hoping that the design would be ready very soon, the DIG said that private firms and other donors would be approached to make the umbrella, depicting the advertisement of the donor firm/organization, available to the police department.
He revealed that the traffic police had obtained 16 surveillance cameras to be installed at important points such as the intersections of Numaish, Guru Mandir, at some points along the Sharea Faisal and other public places. “Traffic police have been provided 30 per cent amount collected through fine on traffic rules violators. Fifteen per cent of this amount is spared for distribution among the officials showing excellent performance and another 15 per cent on procuring equipment,” he said.
The DIG said that his department required at least 100 surveillance cameras to be installed at specific points along different arteries and thoroughfares to detect traffic violations. More cameras would be acquired as soon as the funds were available, he added.
Mr Khan said that the cameras would be operated from the nearest traffic section where personnel would be on duty to help the field staff check any violation of traffic rules.
About the strength of traffic police, he said it was not up to the requirement. The issue, he said, had been taken up with the provincial police chief who had promised fresh recruitment from among those under training at present.