Poorly thought-out efforts to pull back this pickup lead to the deaths and injuries. PHOTO: MUDASSIR RAJA/EXPRESS
According to the Ratta Amral police and rescue officials, people had gathered to help pull a pick-up van from a ditch in the Rahimabad area. During rescue efforts, a crane struck high voltage power lines, which fell on people nearby, killing four on the spot and leaving six others injured.
The police identified the deceased as Noor Zia, 26, of Bajaur Agency, Mohsin Shah, 25, of Mansehra, and Tariq Mahmood, 30, of Charsadda. The identity of the fourth deceased had not been ascertained when this report was filed.
The injured were identified as Muhammad Iqbal, 30, Muhammad Usama, 45, Muhammad Hussain, 20, Khalid Hameed, 55, Asghar, 22, and Sudheer Abbasi, 35.
According to the information gathered by The Express Tribune, Muhammad Usman had parked his pick-up van on a slope and forgot to pull the hand brake, after which it slid into a ditch.
Usman, who runs an ice-making unit in the area, had brought the crane to pull out the pickup, while also asking passersby to help him.
Khanzada, a brother of deceased Noor Zia, told the police that Usman asked his brother and other men to help him. He said that as the crane pulled up the vehicle, the men started pushing the van.
He said the crane brought down a high-voltage wire which electrocuted the victims.
A police official said that they have registered the case as an accident as the families of the deceased did not want to register the FIR. He added that the police handed over the bodies to the families after postmortems.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 4th, 2016.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ