Road safety: Student, passer by die in rickshaw-van collision
18 including rickshaw driver and a school teacher injured.
JAMPUR:
A child and a passer by were killed in a collision between a rickshaw and a passenger van on National Highway in Jampur on Friday morning.
As many as 18 people, including the rickshaw driver, were injured in the incident.
The rickshaw was carrying 12 students and a teacher of a government school to attend the inauguration ceremony at a model village set up by the provincial government for people affected by last summer’s floods.
The ceremony was postponed following the accident.
The deceased were identified as Jaara Faqeer, a passerby, and seven-year-old Afaq.
Witnesses said the van first hit Faqeer and then a rickshaw which then hit another rickshaw.
Three rickshaws had been hired by the school administration to carry 36 students and their teachers to attend the ceremony.
Witnesses said Faqeer died on the spot. The injured were taken to tehsil headquarters (THQ) hospital from where 12 were referred to Nishtar Hospital, Multan.
DMS Saeed Akhtar told The Tribune that six of the students were in a critical condition. He said the remaining were out of danger and would be discharged on full recovery.
Rickshaw driver Faraz, who is under treatment at the THQ hospital, said he took the rickshaw to the extreme left lane after to avoid the van but could not avoid a collision.
“Still I was successful in reducing the impact. None of us would have survived had the van hit us in the middle of the road,” he said. Faraz said after the collision his rickshaw hit another rickshaw.
The van driver managed to escape. The father of the deceased child filed a complaint at Saddar police station.
Jampur SDPO Taimoor Durrani said teams had been constituted to probe the accident and to arrest the driver of van. Speaking at Afaq’s funeral, adviser to chief minister Sher Ali Gorchani announced that provincial government would pay Rs500,000 each to the families of the deceased and Rs100,000 each to the families of the injured.
He assured the family of the deceased student that the van driver would be arrested and prosecuted.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 17th, 2011.
A child and a passer by were killed in a collision between a rickshaw and a passenger van on National Highway in Jampur on Friday morning.
As many as 18 people, including the rickshaw driver, were injured in the incident.
The rickshaw was carrying 12 students and a teacher of a government school to attend the inauguration ceremony at a model village set up by the provincial government for people affected by last summer’s floods.
The ceremony was postponed following the accident.
The deceased were identified as Jaara Faqeer, a passerby, and seven-year-old Afaq.
Witnesses said the van first hit Faqeer and then a rickshaw which then hit another rickshaw.
Three rickshaws had been hired by the school administration to carry 36 students and their teachers to attend the ceremony.
Witnesses said Faqeer died on the spot. The injured were taken to tehsil headquarters (THQ) hospital from where 12 were referred to Nishtar Hospital, Multan.
DMS Saeed Akhtar told The Tribune that six of the students were in a critical condition. He said the remaining were out of danger and would be discharged on full recovery.
Rickshaw driver Faraz, who is under treatment at the THQ hospital, said he took the rickshaw to the extreme left lane after to avoid the van but could not avoid a collision.
“Still I was successful in reducing the impact. None of us would have survived had the van hit us in the middle of the road,” he said. Faraz said after the collision his rickshaw hit another rickshaw.
The van driver managed to escape. The father of the deceased child filed a complaint at Saddar police station.
Jampur SDPO Taimoor Durrani said teams had been constituted to probe the accident and to arrest the driver of van. Speaking at Afaq’s funeral, adviser to chief minister Sher Ali Gorchani announced that provincial government would pay Rs500,000 each to the families of the deceased and Rs100,000 each to the families of the injured.
He assured the family of the deceased student that the van driver would be arrested and prosecuted.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 17th, 2011.