By Amjad Mehmood
—Road accidents in Pakistan are a matter of no concern except for the bearers. The role of governments to control traffic accidents by formulizing strict regulations or to ensure the implementation of existing rules is in absentia. The concerned departments including traffic police of all provinces are making hardly any effort to educate the general public or individuals visiting these offices to obtain their driving license. No big efforts are required to unfold the mystery that how driving licenses are being issued in Pakistan to untrained people. All such amateurs are licensed to drive the vehicles and become a cause of loss on roads. The developed countries have introduced very strict and effective rules for motorists and road accident ratios are fairly controlled where supremacy of traffic rules are ensured. A single accident without a fatal loss is a matter of prime concern for the governments abroad but this is unfortunately not the case in Pakistan.
Every year thousands of innocent commuters die in road accidents in Pakistan due to negligence and violation of traffic rules along with the loss of millions of rupees. The statics are very shocking and demand immediate and serious attention of all concerned for remedial measures. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has published a traffic accidents report early this year from 2009-10 to 2019-20. The data collected through provincial police departments reveals alarming numbers of traffic accidents in Pakistan. This data does not include the number of traffic accidents from Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan where accidents ratio is even worst. The numbers published in PBS’s report reflect the cases which have been reported to police departments while presumably there would be significant numbers of daily traffic accidents which are not being reported and remain uncounted. Other than road accidents, the number of rail accidents in Pakistan especially during the last three years is also distressing.
According to available data for 2009-10 to 2019-20, a total of 104,105 accidents are reported in Pakistan including 44,959 fatal and 59,146 non-fatal accidents. Due to these accidents, 55,141 people have died while 126,144 were found injured. A total of 120,501 vehicles were involved in these accidents causing gigantic material loss. Considering a meager follow-up reporting culture, it can be hypothetically believed that these accidents, deaths and numbers of injuries are just tips of the iceberg and actual figures would be even more heart-wrenching.
The data further reveals that majority of traffic accidents are recorded in Punjab and KPK compared to Sindh and Baluchistan. Considering the ratio of road accidents in all provinces, it can be reckoned that accidents reporting system and emergency services departments including Rescue 1122 which respond and record the data at first instance are efficient in Punjab and KPK rather to envisage that less number of accidents are happening in Sindh and Baluchistan. In the past seven years, Islamabad alone has witnessed about two thousand road accidents causing the loss of 1,049 precious lives.
The PBS report does not include major reasons for road accidents in Pakistan however, it is an open secret to unveil the facts behind this pathetic situation. Violation of traffic rules, over speeding, non-professional drives on wheels and issuance of license without ensuring the requisite competency level are apparent causes of road accidents. The non-implementation of traffic rules, poor prosecution system, free-to-go policy for culprits and various influential factors for traffic police department are additional grounds for not being able to control the increasing tendency of road accidents in Pakistan. The developed countries take this matter various seriously and impose severe financial penalties and punishments including cancellation of license. Unfortunately, no serious efforts have been made by any government in Pakistan to address this matter and resultantly, every passing day people are compelled to see the dead bodies of their loved ones on roads, with injuries of lifelong losses and the loss of worth million rupees.
Besides the governments and concerned departments, it remains as primary responsibility of individuals to follow the traffic rules, avoid over speeding and do not drive the vehicles unless authorized. An iota of negligence causes a huge loss to scream for the rest of life. As a responsible and law-abiding citizen, it is responsibility of every individual to follow the traffic rules for personal and others’ safety.
During the last decade over 55,000 precious lives have been lost in road accidents. This number reflects reported cases only whereas, there would be a significant number which has not been registered through provincial police departments. Already accident cases from AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan are not registered in the PBS report. The Pakistani government has always discussed the sacrifices of 70,000 lives since 2001 in the name of war against terrorism at national and international levels whereas, the deaths’ ratio as a result of road accidents is far ahead of war against terrorism.
Road accidents are a matter of prime concern and demand the immediate attention of all stakeholders for making all-out efforts to rheostat the tragic numbers. Citizens have equal obligations to show more adequate conduct while driving on roads. Collectively, we can save precious lives, worst injuries to happen, loss of millions every day and make our roads safer to commute peacefully.