Faisalabad buries its children misty-eyed, heartbroken

Survivors say conductor was driving when the accident occurred.

FAISALABAD:

A day after 33 children were killed in a bus accident in Kallar Kahar, more reports of negligence have surfaced. 

The bus carrying 107 people despite having a capacity of 72, had been used for 37 years and was being driven on the motorway without a permit, according to official records of the Punjab excise and taxation department.

(Read: Tragedy on Motorway - School bus crash kills 37 in Kallar Kahar)

Surviving passengers said that the conductor was driving when the accident occurred and neither did he have a licence nor any experience of driving on the motorway. “Why was an untrained driver allowed to drive a bus on the motorway?” asked Muhammad Jamil, whose son Akram died in the accident.

Besides the children, the headmaster, driver and conductor were among the dead in Monday’s accident of a bus carrying schoolchildren from Millat Grammar School in Faisalabad.

Faisalabad DCO Naseem Sadiq said that the bus did not have the required permit for the motorway and had taken an alternative route to avoid being checked. Secretary of the Road Transport Authority Mohsin Rasheed said that the vehicle was only meant for inter-city travel and no fitness certificate had been issued by the motor vehicles examiners for many years.

Muhammad Aslam, an injured student from grade seven said:  “When the brakes failed because of some technical problems, the driver became nervous and lost control.”

Aslam said that out of nervousness the conductor shouted and told the passengers that the brakes of the bus had failed, creating more panic. “Some students and teachers jumped off the running bus and died,” he added.

“I do not understand why the motorway police was not present on the route from Faisalabad to Kallar Kahar and the overloaded bus unfit to be on the highway was passed unchecked,” said Dastghir Ahmad, whose son Arshad from grade eight died in the accident.

A leisure trip became the worst day for more than 35 families only to save some money, said another parent Hasnaat.

(Read: Wreck on the highway)

Twenty-nine children were buried on Tuesday after funeral prayers attended by thousands of people. DCO Faisalabad Nasim Sadiq has ordered inquiry into the accident and constituted a three-member committee. Sadiq said the inquiry team will present a report within the next 24 hours.

Strike

Meanwhile, a complete strike was observed in the city to mourn the deaths. All government departments and markets remained closed. Immediately after the accident on Monday, the DCO had declared a public holiday.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2011.