Rescue 1122 rescued 447,667 victims in 2012

LAHORE: Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) rescued 447,667 emergency victims in 429,948 rescue operations while maintaining its average response time of seven minutes and standards in all districts of Punjab during 2012, said Punjab Emergency Service Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer on Tuesday.

Supervising an annual meeting of senior management of Rescue 1122, he said that a “safe community could be a country, city, local government or a district focused on safety promotion and prevention, covering all age groups, genders and areas”.He further said that emergencies could be prevented through research-based better planning, safety awareness and above all effective enforcement of traffic and building by-laws.

The officials briefed the DG that 158,551 road traffic accidents took place across Punjab in 2012 against 144,270 in 2011 with an increase of 14,281 accidents.Similarly, 10,235 cases of fire were registered by Rescue 1122 in 2012 whereas some 8,360 cases of this nature were reported in 2011 with an increase of 1,875 cases.

Also, the Punjab Emergency Service responded to 19,212 calls related to crime and 856 incidents of building collapse whereas 17,281 and 821 incidents, respectively took place in 2011. Rescue 1122 also responded to 856 incidents of building collapse, 127 explosions and 1,628 special rescue operations.

Similarly, the comparative study shows that emergencies of different natures have increased in Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Rajanpur and other districts of the province.Dr Rizwan said that although an emergency service of international standard has been established in Pakistan but all the stakeholders should join hands to prevent ever increasing but avoidable road traffic crashes and fire incidents.This is the right time to make joint efforts on a priority basis by Rescue 1122, media, law enforcement agencies, civil society, lawyers and corporate sector for prevention of such emergencies, he added. – DailyTimes