Rash driving: 13 killed in bus-truck collision near Jamshoro

Two children, army soldier among the dead.

HYDERABAD: At least 13 people were killed including two children and 34 others injured when a Karachi-bound bus crashed into a parked truck near Jamshoro.

According to Jamshoro police, the bus with around 47 people on board was travelling from Dera Ghazi Khan to Karachi early on Tuesday morning. The bus collided head on with a truck full of gravel a little after dawn near the Jamshoro Power Plant on the Indus Highway between Sehwan and Jamshoro.

The crash left the front of the bus, including the driver’s cab and first four rows of seats, badly mangled. The bus driver and cleaners died on the spot.

It took the ambulance services and locals around two hours to shift the dead and injured to the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences in Jamshoro and Hyderabad. Apart from the eight bodies which were pulled out from the wreckage of the bus, five others succumbed to their injuries while under treatment.

Sources at both the LUMHS described the conditions of five passengers as critical. Of these, two were children and six were women.

The dead were identified as children Hina and Karo, 13-year old boy Suhail Ahmed, a Pakistan Army soldier Haji Sher, Arbab Ali, Abu Bakar, Muhammad Suleman, Faiz Muhammad, Yaseen Khan, Muhammad Mustafa, Muhammad Suhail, Aachar Khan Solangi, and Mir Muhammad.

The soldier belonged to 55th brigade which is currently engaged in an operation in Waziristan. He was reportedly on leave returning to his village.

MS Civil Hospital Dr Wajid Memon said that 34 injured people had been brought to the hospital while 11 bodies have been handed over to the families.

Jamshoro police explained that the accident took place owing to reckless driving. Witnesses described the driver talking on his mobile phone.

“I woke up to find myself injured and stuck in the bus,” said Mohammad Rasool, a passenger who was injured in the accident.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2016.