Dangerous roads: Road accidents claim six lives so far this week

Three pedestrians, two motorcyclists among the victims

ISLAMABAD: At least seven people have been killed and several others have been injured in road accidents in the capital over past week.

Police records show that since December 8, road accidents have resulted in at least six deaths, while many others sustained injuries.

Most of the accidents took place on the Islamabad Expressway, where four people died in a week. The number of people injured in these accidents was not known since most of the incidents are not reported to police.

The worst of these incidents took place on December 12 when a car overturned on Islamabad Expressway killing a woman and her son. The victims were identified as Sofia Bibi and Muhammad Bilal. Khanna police have arrested the car driver Khurram Shahzad for negligent driving on the complaint of the victims’ family.

The remaining five victims included three pedestrians, who were run over while crossing the road, and two motorcyclists.

On December 14, Koral police arrested a dump truck driver, Ghulam Farid, after he ran over a 19-year-old man near Koral chowk. The victim, identified as Muhammad Waseem, died from the impact.

Earlier on December 10, Shams Colony had arrested another dump truck driver, Sajjad Ahmad, after he ran over a motorcyclist on Kashmir Highway, killing him. The victim was identified as Ijaz Jaleel.

Another motorcyclist was also killed in a hit-and-run incident in F-10 Markaz on November 29.

Police have yet to arrest a car driver who ran over and killed a pedestrian, identified as Muhammad Bashir, near Zia Masjid on the Islamabad Expressway. On December 8, a 50-year-old woman was run over by a car in G-11/3.

Traffic police officials have repeatedly blamed the ‘insufficient’ road infrastructure, particularly along the Islamabad Expressway, for the high number of road accidents.

Officials say most of the accidents are being reported from Expressway and the IJP Road, the two arteries which receive the bulk of heavy traffic travelling on the GT Road between Peshawar and Lahore.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2016.