Eight perish in Burewala crash

BUREWALA:

Eight members of a family, including three children, were killed on Thursday when their car collided with a truck in Punjab province.

Rescue sources said members of the in-laws of former chairman district council Mian Zahid Daultana were on their way from Luddan to Lahore.

Rescue officials said a car heading to Lahore from Burewala collided head-on with a truck due to speeding on Luddan Road Burewala, some 140 kilometres from Lahore. The car driver lost control over the vehicle because of speeding and rammed the vehicle into a truck coming from the opposite direction.

“The accident was so fatal that all eight passengers of the car died on the spot,” a rescue official told The Express Tribune, adding the dead included car driver Mohammad Jahangir, Shehriyar, Mehwish, four-year-old Ahmed, seven-month-old Ali, six-year-old Maria, Soha and Balu.

Read more: Five perish in Sheikhupura accident

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has expressed his grief over the loss of life in the accident.

Funeral prayers of the deceased were offered at Government Higher Secondary School, Luddan. More than 20 members of the family were on their way to Murree in three vehicles. Two vehicles went ahead while the driver of the third vehicle lost control and collided head-on with a truck. The accident was so severe that the car went under the truck and all the eight victims died on the spot before any medical aid.

Rescue 1122 reached the spot, and cut the vehicle to retrieve the bodies of victims. Rescue in-charge Abdul Jabbar Bhatti supervised the operation which was concluded in around three hours. Road accidents are rampant due to reckless driving in Punjab.

In the first week of February, at least six members of a family were killed in a tragic road accident on Mohsinwal Jandiali Road in the suburbs of Mian Channu when a speeding car lost control and rammed into a tree.

The man who was driving the vehicle, his wife and a son died on the spot. Rescue 1122 sources said a tyre of the vehicle burst due to speeding and the car hit a tree.

The family was travelling to Mohsinwal. Six people, Malik Eid Mohammad, his wife Razia Bibi, sons Saifullah and Abdullah, Saifullah’s wife Mariam Bibi and granddaughter one-year-old Aima died while Muqaddas Bibi was severely injured.

In June 2020, at least six members of a family going to attend a Valima ceremony were killed when a van caught fire after an accident on the motorway near Gojra on Monday.

The deceased included two children and a woman, while 10 people, including six children, were injured. They were admitted to the Allied Hospital.

Rescue 1122 teams had to cut the vehicle to retrieve the bodies after extinguishing the fire. The bodies were charred by the fire. Rescue officials handed them over to the police.

The fire engulfed the van after it collided with a container truck. Officials of the area and motorway police, district administration and rescue service reached the spot for rescue operation after the accident.

The family from Sheikhupura was travelling in the van on the motorway to attend a Valima in Shorkot.

When they reached Faisalabad-Gojra Motorway near Chak 62JB, Chanan, in Sandal Bar area, the van collided with the truck and then hit the divider and caught fire.

The flames engulfed the van, killing six-year-old Ehtesham, son of Sufyan, nine-year-old Muhammad Kaif, seven-year-old Abiya, 32-year-old Khaleda Parveen, 22-year-old Muhammad Bilal and 45-year-old Imran.

In July last year, a speeding truck on Sunday crushed five people travelling on a motorcycle to death on GT Road. The victims belonged to the same family.

Irfan, son of Siddique, a resident of Shergarh, along with 60-year-old Zarina Bibi, 30-year-old Nazia, 5-year-old Isha, and 3-year-old Abiha, was travelling on a motorcycle on GT Road to visit relatives when a recklessly driven truck coming from the opposite direction slammed into the two-wheeler, killing all five members of the family.

The truck driver managed to escape from the scene.

Rescue 1122 officials reached the spot on information and shifted the bodies to the hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2021.