Lahore traffic police to suspend licences after fatal crashes

Lahore's traffic police will suspend driving licences after every fatal or serious non-fatal road accident and has moved against the route permits of public service vehicles, Chief Traffic Officer Abdul Rahim Sherazi said, in a push to bring down accident deaths by targeting heavy and commercial transport.

Sherazi said heavy and commercial vehicles make up only 4 percent of the city's traffic but are involved in 44 percent of road accidents, a figure carried in reports by both TechJuice and ProPakistani.

Under the new approach, officials will suspend a driver's licence after each fatal or serious non-fatal accident, subject to court orders, and drivers held responsible for fatal crashes will also face legal action. ProPakistani reported that suspending a vehicle's route permit would prevent other drivers from operating the same vehicle.

According to the CTO, 117 drivers involved in accidents have already had their licences suspended this year, and the force has written to the relevant authorities seeking the suspension of route permits for 97 public service vehicles.

Sherazi said drivers caught operating a vehicle despite a suspended licence will face cases, and that licences suspended for reckless driving may remain suspended for between six months and three years.

The force will also take action against drivers of vehicles that contribute to smog, he said, restating what ProPakistani described as a zero-tolerance policy towards irresponsible driving. The measure comes as Lahore approaches the winter months, when air quality in the city deteriorates sharply.

The reports did not say when the new measures take effect, how the force will identify vehicles contributing to smog, or what staffing will be assigned to enforcement.

Road safety has become a recurring concern in Punjab's capital, where heavy trucks and buses share congested arteries with motorcycles and rickshaws. Officials have previously blamed driver error, unfit vehicles and lax enforcement of route permits for the toll.

Traffic police data on individual crashes is not published routinely, and the figures cited by the CTO could not be independently verified.