Rash driving costs family 6 lives

Two children, women among victims

LAHORE:

Six members of a family, including two infants and two women, were killed after a speeding car driven by a teenage boy rammed into their vehicle in Defence Phase 7.

The family was reportedly returning home in two cars after visiting relatives in Shadab Colony on Ferozpur Road. As they reached near a roundabout, the car driven by a teenage boy rammed into their vehicle.

The young driver reportedly had lost control of his vehicle. According to witnesses, he had been driving rashly, which was a common practice by children of the affluent in the area.

The speeding vehicle hit the victims’ car from the left side. The collision was so intense that the vehicle overturned and was badly damaged.

Read Road crashes leave 17 dead

People present nearby alerted the Rescue 1122 service, whose teams shifted the victims to a hospital, but they succumbed to the injuries.

Rukhsana, 52, Anabia aged three years, four-month-old Huzaifa, Muhammad Hasnain, 28, Sajjad, 26, and Ayesha, 22 died in the accident. According to police officials, the driver involved in the accident, Afnan Shafqat, left his vehicle and fled from the site of accident. However, he was later arrested by the police.

The postmortem of the victims was completed and the bodies handed over to the family. The relatives of the deceased were shocked and enraged over the sudden death of six members of their family.

Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi expressed grief over the incident and sought a report from senior police officers.

In another accident in the city, a 40-year-old man died and four others were injured after a passenger van collided with a trailer truck in Raiwind.

The victim, Nadeem, and the four injured people were passengers of the van. As the vehicle reached Raiwind Road, the trailer hit it. Akram, 23, Ali, 23, Arbaz, 25, and Latif Ullah, 34, were injured.in the traffic accident.

Also read 331 lives lost in October road crashes

In Shahdara, a man died after a tractor-trolley hit a motorbike.

Meanwhile, at least 23 people were killed and 1,297 were injured in 1,213 Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) reported across all 37 districts of Punjab during the past 24 hours. Of the injured, 671 people with serious injuries were shifted to different hospitals, while 626 victims with minor injuries were treated at the incident site by Rescue Medical Teams.

The majority of RTCs, 74 percent, involved motorbikes. Further analysis showed that 610 drivers, 37 underage drivers, 150 pedestrians and 560 passengers were among the victims of RTCs.

The statistics show that 251 RTCs were reported in Lahore with 271 victims, placing the Provincial Capital at the top of the list.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2023.