Faulty wires: Rickshaw driver dies as electric wire falls

Similar accidents claimed two more lives in one week

KARACHI: A 23-year-old rickshaw driver, identified as Ghulam Mustafa, was electrocuted to death outside a school in Latifabad, Hyderabad, on Tuesday.

The incident took place when an 11,000-kilovolt wire broke and fell on Mustafa when he came to drop some children to school. This is the third life claimed by the faulty electric supply system of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) in a week.

On October 9, two men, identified as Syed Asif Ali, 37, and Muhammad Ali Nagori, 42, suffered critical burn injuries when oil splashed on them from a transformer that exploded in Tando Mir Mehmood in downtown Hyderabad. The victims later succumbed to their injuries in the hospital. Waqas, 32, was also injured in the incident, while the explosion also damaged a milk shop.

In another incident of transformer explosion on October 16, goods in two shops located in Resham Bazaar were burnt. Separately, at least two deaths were reported in June and August from Hyderabad district.

Hesco powers 13 districts of Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Nawabshah divisions. The company's spokesperson, Sadiq Kubar, said that the Hesco conducts inquiries after every such incident.

The recommendations for compensation to the victims have also been submitted to the board of directors "It mostly happens due to overloading," said Kubar while explaining the reasons behind breaking of high transmission wires and explosions of transformers. However, he sought time to share details of previous inquiries and status of current ones as the relevant officer, construction, maintenance and operations director Muhammad Ismail, was out of town.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2016.