Asleep at the wheel: Three professors killed in car crash near Chakri

One professor survives the crash with minor injuries

RAWALPINDI: Three professors of from a government-run college in Multan, who were travelling to attend a conference in Islamabad, died in a car crash near the Chakri Interchange on the Motorway on Saturday morning.

Four professors from the Government Emerson College in Multan were travelling to attend a four-day long conference and workshop in Murree. At around at around 6am, the driver apparently fell asleep at the wheel and the Toyota Passo car they were travelling in crashed into a boundary wall causing the car to overturn.

The professors who were killed were identified as 48-year-old Associate Professor of Islamiat Rana Dilshad, 50-year-old Associate Professor of Education Zafar Iqbal, and 45-year-old Associate Professor of Pakistan Studies Rao Zulfiqar.

A fourth passenger in the car, 47-year-old Ramzan Sheikh, received minor injuries and was shifted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad for treatment.

A senior officer of the Motorways Police said that Sheikh was driving the car.

Rescue 1122 and locals shifted the injured and dead to the hospital, police added. The Motorways police reported the incident to the Chauntra police. The hospital authorities, after due process of law, handed over the three dead bodies to their families.

Professor Dilshad was the divisional president of the Anjuman-e-Asataza Pakistan (Association of Teachers), Professor Zulfiqar and Professor Iqbal were members of the Punjab Professors Lecturers Association.

So far this year, over 60 people have been killed in road accidents in and around Islamabad.

Earlier in April, a student died after she was run over by the Metro Bus she was riding in. Owing to apparent rash driving by the bus driver, a side mirror had struck a window of the bus shattering it. While riding through an unpaved section of the track, the driver had to suddenly pull the emergency brakes. Owing to the sudden change in momentum, 19-year-old medical student Sumera was thrown out of the broken window of the bus.

Stunned, she was unable to move in time as the rear tyre of the bus crushed her.

* WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM OWAIS QARNI IN MULTAN

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2017.