One injured in car-coaster collision

1 man received minor injuries when car and coaster collided on Jinnah Avenue right outside Centaurus Mall entrance.

ISLAMABAD:

One man received minor injuries when a car and a coaster collided on Jinnah Avenue right outside the Centaurus Mall entrance on Sunday afternoon, according to the police.

The coaster had been booked by a private school in Peshawar for a sightseeing trip to Islamabad for students. It was empty at the time of the accident because all the students had already gone inside the mall, the police and eyewitnesses said.

The coaster’s driver had parked the vehicle along the footpath on Jinnah Avenue near the Centaurus parking entrance.

He decided to move it to a new spot a few yards ahead. But just as the driver pulled the coaster outside the parking lane, it collided with an incoming Toyota Fielder.

The incoming car, whose only passenger was the car’s driver, skidded and swerved on the road and hit the pavement. The coaster crashed in to another vehicle, a Daewoo Racer, parked by the side of the road.

The Daewoo, which belonged to a family from Rawalpindi that was also inside the mall at the time of the accident, was thrown on to the pavement on impact.

Rescue ambulances and traffic police officials immediately reached the scene after the accident happened at around 1:15pm. The Fielder’s front bumper, windscreen and much of the left side, which hit the bus, were badly damaged.

Its driver was shifted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, where he was treated for minor injuries. The coaster’s body above the front right wheel and below the driver’s door was damaged.

A duty officer at the Margalla Police Station said the two parties were trying to settle the issue between themselves and a case had not been registered. The officer said the parties were also going to bear the repairs cost of the Daewoo car, which was not directly involved in the accident.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2014.