'Death traps on wheels'

PTI says 108 lives lost in 110 days, demands heavy vehicle ban, Safe City monitoring

KARACHI:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Karachi Raja Azhar has voiced grave concern over the rising number of fatal accidents involving heavy traffic in the city, saying recent incidents have laid bare systemic mismanagement.

He highlighted that five people, including two women, lost their lives in separate traffic accidents within just 24 hours. The incidents included a fatal collision with a water tanker in Gulistan-e-Johar, deaths caused by heavy vehicles on Mauripur Road, a 17-year-old killed by a dumper on Super Highway, and a woman killed while her husband was injured in a bus accident at Numaish Chowrangi.

Raja Azhar said these tragedies underscore a harsh reality: Karachi's roads have become "death traps" for citizens, while authorities remain indifferent to public safety. Citing rescue officials, he claimed that 108 lives have been lost in 110 days, describing the toll not as isolated accidents but the result of "systematic negligence and mismanagement."

He further criticised what he called a complete breakdown in the regulation of heavy vehicle drivers, including failures in training, licensing, and vehicle fitness checks. Unfit vehicles and untrained drivers, he alleged, continue to operate freely, while tanker and transport "mafias" act with impunity.

The PTI leader also pointed to reckless driving, substance abuse, and overloading as major contributing factors behind the accidents, adding that no serious measures are being taken to address these issues.