Rickshaw-truck collision: Father, three sons die in road crash

Two woman critically injured in accident remain hospitalised.

LAHORE: The trip to a wedding reception ended in tragedy for a family in Lahore on Sunday. A garbage truck mowed down six members of the family on their way home, killing four on the spot and leaving two more critically injured.

Yaqub alias Mithu, a rickshaw driver, and his three sons died in the collision on Amir Road while his wife and sister-in-law were severely hurt. Yaqub was driving his family home on Sher Shah Road, Data Nagar when the truck crashed into their rickshaw. The vehicle overturned and caught fire

The victims were shifted to a nearby hospital, where doctors pronounced three children dead on arrival. The family head later succumbed to his injuries while his wife Saima and sister-in-law Sana remain hospitalised. The minors were identified as Farman, 8, Rehan, 6 and Tauseef, 3.

The news of the deaths fell like a bomb on the relatives of the family as well as the neighbours. Heart-wrenching scenes were witnessed at their house in Data Nagar.

Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed deep sense of sorrow and grief over the death of the father and his three children in the road accident. He offered sincere condolences to the bereaved family and called for the provision of best medical facilities to the injured women.

The chief minister has sought a report about the accident and ordered legal action against the truck driver.

Not the last...

This is not the first or even the last such tragedy in Lahore. All efforts of the Lahore traffic police and Punjab government seem to have borne no fruits as the number of road accidents in the provincial metropolis continue to rise.

Road accidents data available with The Express Tribune shows 123 people have been killed and 15,218 more injured in 14,965 road accidents in the first 116 days of the ongoing year. In 2016, 328 people were killed and 46,246 were injured in 45,094 accidents while in 2015, 308 people were killed and 49,025 got injured in 46,268 road crashes.

When per day averages are extrapolated, the statistics predict that deaths may rise to 387 by the end of 2017. That would be 79 and 59 more deaths than 2015 and 2016 respectively.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2017.