The horrific multi-vehicle crash on the M9 Motorway near Kathore on February 13, claiming 13 innocent lives — including 12 members of a single family returning from a wedding — is not just a tragedy; it’s a damning indictment of our complete failure to enforce basic traffic laws. The initial police investigation reveals a nightmare of negligence. The passenger van was travelling in the wrong direction. The oil tanker had no fitness certificate, and its driver possessed no licence. The passenger coach lacked both a route permit and a fitness certificate and had been fined previously. Every single checkpoint, every single regulation, failed these victims.
This was not an accident, but a disaster waiting to happen, caused by a systemic collapse of accountability. How does an unlicensed driver operate a heavy vehicle with known fitness issues on a major motorway? How do passenger vehicles without permits continue to operate despite prior fines? Our roads have become death traps because we treat traffic laws as suggestions rather than binding rules.
The IG Motorways has ordered an investigation. This investigation must be transparent, swift and lead to concrete prosecutions — not just of the van driver who fled, but of every official whose negligence allowed these unlicensed, unfit vehicles on our roads. The communications minister has rightly ordered inspection of tyre quality for vehicles entering motorways. This is welcome, but not enough.
We need: 1) Mandatory, documented fitness checks for all commercial vehicles; 2) Strict verification of driver licences at all motorway entry points; 3) Automatic penalties for vehicles caught without permits; 4) Accountability for transport authorities who fail to enforce existing laws.
Twelve members of one family left for a wedding and never returned. A three-year-old boy died during treatment. How many more families must be destroyed before we decide that enforcement matters? The M9 is meant to connect cities, not end lives. Let this tragedy be the last. Let it force the systemic change our roads have desperately needed for decades.
Mahnoor Shahid
Karachi
