Road crash leaves 18 dead in Mianwali

35 injured as speeding bus slams into tractor-trolley

BHAKKAR/MULTAN: At least 18 people – including six from one family – were killed and 35 others injured in a deadly road crash in the northern Punjab district of Mianwali on Wednesday.

A racing bus, which was en route to Layyah from Mianwali, slammed into a tractor-trolley on MM Road in Chakk 19 ML near Harnoli, according to police.



Officials and survivors said the bus driver lost control of his vehicle after it broke tie-rod in the middle of the two-way road. The bus veered off the lane coming in the way of a tractor-trolley, they added. Assistant Commissioner Rana Shahid Hussain corroborated the account.

The impact was so strong that the bus turned into a heap of mangled metal. Police and rescuers had to cut through the body of the bus to pull out the injured who were subsequently driven to Mianwali’s District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ).

In all, 35 people were wounded, 16 critically. Most of them had brain and spinal cord injuries, according to Dr Hafeezullah. Since the DHQ faces a shortage of neurosurgeons, 16 of the injured were shifted to Multan’s Nishtar Hospital.



Mianwali’s DPO Sadiq Khan confirmed the fatalities. “Twelve people were killed on the spot; three succumbed to their injuries en route to hospital; another three died at the DHQ Mianwali and Nishtar Hospital,” he told The Express Tribune.

Relatives of the injured protested outside of DHQ against shortage of doctors. Protester Zubaida said her brother might have survived if he was treated on time for his brain injuries. The protesters dispersed only after the assistant commissioner assured them that neurosurgeons were being called from Multan to treat the injured.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th,  2016.