Deadly driving: Nine dead as passenger coach overturns

SUKKUR:

At least nine people, including women and children, were killed and more than 20 others were injured as a passenger coach overturned in Naushehro Feroze on Tuesday.

As the driver recklessly tried to overtake a donkey cart, the vehicle’s tie rod broke and it rammed into roadside shops and overturned, according to the eyewitnesses. The coach bearing registration number JB-3327 was on its way to Karachi from Dera Ghazi Khan. The accident took place in Moro at about 6am and all the roadside shops and hotels were closed, otherwise more people may have been killed and injured.

The victims were identified as Mohammad Essa, the coach driver, conductor Rajab Ali, Nasir Khan, Zahid Shah, Mai Sharifan, Noor Khatoon, Waqar Ali, Rabail and three-year-old Mastan Ali.

Head constable Niaz Hussain Lakho at the Moro police station said that the coach driver was over speeding when the vehicle went out of control. The injured were shifted to hospitals in Moro, Shahpur Jahania and Shaheed Benazirabad. The case has not been registered yet.

In Thatta, two men died and four more were injured as two trucks collided head-on near Makli bypass on Tuesday morning. The drivers of a trailer and a mini-truck died on the spot. The victims were identified as Nazar Abbas and Arshad Punjabi.

With additional input from PPI

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2012.