Lessons From Kallar Kahar: Transporters warned on fitness

NHMP met with transporters and told them to make sure their vehicles are fit for the road.

LAHORE: National Highways and Motorway Police (NHMP) has met with transporters in Sheikhupura, Hafizabad and Lahore in the wake of the Kallar Kahar school bus tragedy and told them to make sure their vehicles are fit for the road. Thirty-five people including 32 schoolchildren were killed when an overloaded and unfit bus overturned on the M-2 last Monday. An inquiry team criticised the NHMP for allowing the bus onto the motorway. SSP Nisar Ahmed Saroya, sector commander for M-2 (South) and M-3, arranged a series of meetings with public transport owners to remind them of safety standards, said a press release. Transporters were told at a seminar at the DIG (Motorway) camp office in Lahore that the NHMP would be very strict in checking buses for required fitness certificates and registration documents, are not overloaded, and that their drivers are trained and licensed.  

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2011.