At least 18 people lost their lives while 35 were injured in two separate accidents on Monday morning, as a van and truck collided near Sindh’s Moro city, while a bus overturned in Punjab’s Attock District.
Fatal road accidents on highways occur frequently in Pakistan, with the main reasons including overspeeding, hazardous overtaking and disregard for traffic rules.
In Punjab’s Attock, ten people lost their lives while 22 were injured as a bus overturned at the Fateh Jhang Interchange on M-14 Motorway, Rescue 1122 said.
In a statement, Rescue 1122 said the vehicle was a Yutong bus going from Mianwali to Rawalpindi.
The rescue service said it was alerted about the accident at 8:08am, following which six vehicles and 14 rescuers were dispatched to the site of the incident.
The bodies and the injured had been shifted to the tehsil headquarters hospitals in Attock, it added. The “probable cause” reported by Rescue 1122 was overspeeding.
On Saturday, as many as 10 people, including five women of a family going for a mehndi function, were injured in Sahiwal when their bus overturned while trying to avoid a tractor-trolley.
The same day, seven persons of a family from Lahore died and two others were injured in an accident caused by heavy fog on the road going from Syedwala Interchange on the M-3 to Tandlianwala in Faisalabad.
Over two weeks ago, a car accident on the Multan-Sukkur Motorway near Jalalpur Peerwala in Lodhran district killed a couple from Khanpur, while their three children sustained serious injuries.
Earlier this month, former MNA Makhdum Ali Hassan Gilani, a close relative of Senate Chairman Yousaf Raza Gilani, was among two people killed in a road accident near Nabipur village on Uch Sharif Road in Bahawalpur.
Meanwhile, in Sindh’s Naushahro Feroze District, eight people died and 13 others were injured earlier today when a truck and a van collided on the M-6 Motorway near Moro, officials said.
Naushahro Feroze Deputy Commissioner (DC) Arsalan Saleem confirmed the casualties in today’s accident, saying that another injured individual succumbed to his injuries, raising the death toll to eight.
According to DC Saleem, the van was returning from a wedding in Hyderabad when it was met with the accident.
Sanghaar Malik, the Naushahro Feroze senior superintendent of police (SSP), said the truck’s driver managed to flee from the incident site. The fate of the van driver was not yet clear.
SSP Malik said an investigation into the incident was underway, while the bodies and the injured had been shifted to a hospital.
DC Saleem said the condition of 10 injured persons was critical and therefore, they were shifted to a hospital in Nawabshah.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah also expressed his grief over the loss of lives.
“I express my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families,” he was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his spokesperson.
He directed that the wounded be provided with the best possible medical treatment and prayed for the deceased. “Drivers should drive their vehicles with caution,” the chief minister advised.
He also requested the federal government to have the National Highway Authority (NHA) install more lights and reflection lights on the National Highway, Indus Highway and the Superhighway.
Last month, a fast-moving dumper ran over and killed a college professor and his wife on Sindh’s M-9 motorway, formerly known as Superhighway.
According to a report from April, citing officials, as many as 115 people were killed and 317 injured in a total of 97 traffic accidents on an incomplete section of the Indus Highway between Jamshoro and Sehwan during the last four years.
Additional input by Imtiaz Ali
