Rash driving: 32 dead in two road crashes near Kahuta

Police arrest the driver of the bus which fell into a gorge killing 23 people.

RAWALPINDI:

At least 32 people have been killed in two road tragedies within 24 hours near Kahuta on the outskirts of the federal capital.

A jeep carrying 10 people and en route to Kahuta from Sanohri village plunged into a deep ditch near the Bewor area.

All on board the jeep were killed in the accident. Their bodies were shifted to the district headquarters hospital in Rawalpindi and handed over to the heirs after medico-legal formalities.

Earlier in the wee hours of Monday, a passenger bus carrying a wedding party to Chakwal fell into a gorge allegedly due to reckless driving. The death toll from that accident soared past 20 on Sunday.

The Kahuta police have registered a criminal case against the driver, Muhammad Yousaf, and his helper Gulistan Khan.

The surviving passengers, 58 in number, were shifted to Benazir Bhutto and Rawalpindi district headquarters hospitals from Kahuta’s tehsil headquarters hospital and KRL hospital.

“Although the police are investigating the incident from different angles, evidence collected so far point to the driver’s negligence,” said Waheedur Rehman Khattak, the superintendent of police for Saddar Division.

Usually public transport drivers try to save fuel while driving downhill and in this case, too, it seems the driver put the old Bedford bus in neutral and tried to apply the brakes, according to Khattak.

The bus did not go more than 60 feet before it hit three oak trees. Had it gone further down, the number of dead could have been much higher, he added.

Of the 23 dead, most were men sitting on the roof of the bus who were crushed when the vehicle rolled over, Khattak said.

Rawalpindi Division Commissioner Imdadullah Bosal said 58 injured passengers have been shifted to Rawalpindi hospitals. He told The Express Tribune that over 100 passengers were on board the bus  at the time of the accident.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2012.