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? We spoke with Dr Muhammed Navid Tahir about the lack of road safety lead agency, and the difficulty in changing driver behavior.
Key takeaways:
The Road Safety Act
70% of Pakistan’s road traffic are motorbikes
Introducing the vehicle inspection system
Difficulty of educating the population
Less than 10% of motorcyclists wear helmets
Show Notes
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:
- The Road Safety Act
- 70% of Pakistan’s road traffic are motorbikes
- Introducing the vehicle inspection system
- Difficulty of educating the population
- Less than 10% of motorcyclists wear helmets
Links:
What is Global Road Safety?
Welcome to Global Road Safety, a podcast exploring the issues, trends, and innovations in driver safety worldwide. More than 2.5 million people are involved in crashes each year, a number that continues to rise as drivers become more distracted behind the wheel.
Featuring interviews with safety experts and leaders, Global Road Safety is an initiative to reduce crashes and save lives — across every continent. The Global Road Safety podcast is produced by Smith System, the leader in advanced driver safety training.
For more information, visit http://www.drivedifferent.com