Man crushed by Dow University bus struggles for life

Another person was killed when the bus rammed into motorcyclists waiting at a traffic light

KARACHI: A young man, who was injured on October 2, after a shuttle bus of the Dow University of Health Sciences, rammed into the rear of the motorcycle he was travelling on, is fighting for his life at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC). Meanwhile,the bus driver, who had fled the scene, has managed to evade authorities since.

The victim, 21-year-old Anas Idrees, who was on the way to a factory in Korangi Industrial area, but ended up at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre's (JPMC) Neurosurgery Ward instead.



Seated on a charpoy outside the ward, his elderly father, Muhammad Idrees - a retired government officer, told The Express Tribune, "Doctors say my child is a fighter. He is unconscious and fighting his head injury." Idrees lives in a two bedroom house near Tibet Center and has two sons and two daughters, of whom Anas is the eldest.

Anas has sustained an injury to his jaw and has been diagnosed with clotting inside his brain. "Doctors say they can't operate on him until he regains consciousness. Currently he's on ventilator," said his cousin, Sheharyar, adding that he was the only breadwinner of the family.

On Monday, Anas had taken a ride with his neighbour, Asif Sheikh, 40, who was also going to Korangi. "Usually, he used to travel on public transport," said Sheharyar, adding that when the bus rammed into the motorcycles, Sheikh was killed on the spot, while Anas sustained severe head injuries.

The incident

The accident occurred on Tuesday morning at the traffic light in front of the National Medical Center on Korangi Road. DUHS' shuttle bus number 10/29 was transporting students to the varsity when its brakes apparently failed. "The shuttle was travelling at normal speed, before it crashed into a mini-bus and some motorcycles," a DUHS student, who was on the shuttle at the time, told The Express Tribune.

The student, who asked not to be named, recalled waking up to the realisation that the driver was driving quite erratically. "I suddenly opened my eyes to find the driver trying to slow the bus down by hitting its tyres against the sidewalk," she said, adding that just short of the traffic light, the driver jumped off and ran away. Subsequently, the shuttle crashed into a mini-bus and motorcycles waiting at the traffic light.

All the students immediately disembarked from the bus and tried to help the injured. "It was the worst scene ever. A motorcycle rider died on the spot as we were trying to resuscitate him," said the student. "Another person was bleeding profusely," she said, her voice trembling with emotion as she narrated the incident. The ambulance, she said, reached the site 25 minutes later.

The next day, according to another student of the DUHS, they tried to protest inside the varsity, but were dissuaded with the threat of dismissal. "At the time of admission, we're charged transport fees, whether we use the facility or not," said the student, adding that the varsity's transport is in a deplorable condition. "Yet, we're not allowed to speak up."



A recent graduate of the varsity, Yasir Usman, protested against the DUHS outside the Karachi Press Club alongside Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan's Farooq Sattar on Monday and demanded an investigation be conducted into the matter.

According to Muhammad Ali, the investigation officer of Defence Police Station, the accident was caused by the failure of the bus' brakes, which was occupied by female students of the DUHS. An FIR has been registered and a search for the driver is under way. While the DUHS has not been nominated in the FIR, Ali said the bus is DUHS property and is parked at the police station.

Apathetic response

According to Sheharyar, he went to see DUHS' Vice Chancellor, Saeed Qureshi, in the wake of the incident. "His response was lethargic," he recalled, adding that Qureshi wasn't even aware of the details of the incident. "I requested him to shift the patient to some private hospital, but he refused and offered me to transfer Anas to Civil hospital's trauma center," he said.

Later, Sheharyar was communicated via Qureshi's personal assistant that Anas's condition wasn't stable enough to shift him to another hospital. No one from the DUHS or government, he said, inquired about them, nor was the incident highlighted by the media.

Another person injured in the accident was 21-year-old Mohsin, whose hipbone was dislocated. "We bore the cost of treatment ourselves," his father, Muhammad Tehseen, told The Express Tribune, adding that no one from the DUHS had inquired after them, "After all, it was the DUHS' bus that injured my child."

DUHS VC Qureshi could not be reached for comment. However, pro-VC and in-charge of DUHS' shuttle service, Khawar Saeed Jamali, said that he had personally gone to the JPMC and met the victims and their families. He also claimed to have made offers of financial assistance to the families.

According to Jamali, DUHS currently owns 20 shuttles, eight of which are new, while the remaining are of the 1982 model. He added that they will procure new buses from their own resources by November.

On a question regarding maintenance of the buses, Jamali said that the vehicles were regularly checked at their in-house workshop. "When the brakes failed, our driver yelled for the traffic to give way, but that couldn't happen," he said, adding that the driver hasn't even been coming to the varsity since the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2018.