Every year in Pakistan around 30,000 people die in road accidents. Why, in the world’s fifth largest country, would they have such a high rate of road safety incidents?

“If we discuss the major road safety issues in Pakistan, the problem is unfortunately, still we do not have any road safety lead agency in Pakistan.”

Dr Muhammed Navid Tahir is incredibly passionate about making Pakistan's roads safer. As an assistant professor of Public Health at the University of Punjab, he's also done work drafting Pakistan's national road safety policy guidelines, with a special focus on motorcycle safety, pedestrian safety, and the five pillars of road safety.  

Dr Tahir truly faces an uphill struggle to improve road safety in Pakistan. Not only do drivers largely not follow the rules of the road, but Pakistan also doesn’t identify this lack of road safety as a public health issue, therefore there is no political support to make improvements. Plus, less than 10% of motorcyclists wear a helmet. 

“The lack of awareness is a big issue. And it's very difficult to actually modify the behavior and train the people in this area, because people actually are not very educated about road safety, and they are mostly impatient on the road.”

To find out more about the work Dr Tahir is doing to help keep Pakistan’s roads safer, download and listen today. 

On today’s podcast:

Links: