Speeding biker blamed for accident with US diplomat

Police book driver of motorbike for rash driving; US Embassy’s security chief also booked for confronting police

ISLAMABAD: Hours after a collision between a motorbike rider and a car driven by an American diplomat on Constitution Avenue late on Sunday evening, the police have held the motorbike rider as responsible for the incident.

The incident took place at around 9:40pm on Sunday evening on the Constitution Avenue near the Pak Secretariat complex.

Police said that two men, including 27-year-old Nazakat Aslam Awan, and Muhamad Waseem were riding on a motorbike (ARM-935). They were travelling down the Aga Khan Road.

A Toyota SUV, driven by US Embassy Second Secretary Chad Rex Ausburn, was travelling on the Constitution Avenue while heading towards Margalla Road when the two vehicles collided at the intersection of the two roads near Pak Secretariat complex.

As a result, Awan suffered a head injury while Waseem got a few bruises.

Officers deputed at the traffic intersection nearby responded to the situation and shifted Awan to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for medical attention.

Ausburn, though, was asked to accompany officers to the nearby Secretariat police station. He was let go after he produced his diplomatic card issued by the Foreign Office along with a valid driving licence to police and recorded a statement.

A traffic police officer, deputed nearby, later stated in his statement that Awan, the driver of the motorbike, was apparently speeding and was negligent in driving and caused the accident.

Police added that the motorbike rider did not stop at the crossing [to give way to the vehicles on his right] and have thus held him responsible for the accident.

Secretariat police have also registered a criminal case of rash driving against the motorbike rider.

The police also arrested the US Embassy’s chief security officer Syed Taimur Iqbal. Officers explained that Iqbal had allegedly confronted officers and obstructed them in discharging their duties. “

He was not letting us shift the vehicle and its driver to the police station,” read the FIR registered against Iqbal.

Iqbal, though, was released on Monday after securing bail from a magistrate. This was the second traffic accident involving American diplomats in the capital in April.

The first incident on April 7 saw Colonel Joseph Emanuel Hall, the defence and air attaché at the US Embassy, jump a red light on the intersection of Margalla Road and Seventh Avenue and plough into a motorbike with two riders on it.

As a result of the collision, the motorbike riders were sent flying into the air. The force of the accident killed the driver of the bike, 22-year-old Ateeq Baig while it left his cousin suffered two fractures in his leg.

The deceased hailed from the Talhar village in the Margalla Hills and used to work part time at a hotel in the Blue Area while his father works as a security guard at a government school in Saidpur village.

The victim’s father in his complaint to the police said that his son and nephew were travelling from Daman-e-Koh side on their bike when they were hit by a land cruiser coming from Sector F-8 side at Daman-e-Koh chowk on Margalla Road.

The complainant said his son and nephew were crossing the intersection on the green signal but the land cruiser was jumping the signals when it hit them.

Soon after the accident, an on-duty traffic police official alerted the police. The US diplomat and his car were taken to the nearby Kohsar Police Station in Islamabad’s F-7 area.

At the police station, the US official produced his diplomatic card issued by the Foreign Office as well as his driving licence. An FIR has been lodged against the diplomat on the complaint of the victims’ families. Hall has been booked for unintentional murder through rash driving. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2018.