Public safety: Truck driver dies under collapsed bridge
At least 16 bridges of the same design have been built on Ring Road.
LAHORE:
A truck driver from Sargodha was killed inside his vehicle by a pedestrian bridge in an accident on the Ring Road in North Cantonment on Thursday.
Officials said that Rana Sajjad, 25, a resident of Chak 43, Sargodha, was driving with the ‘bucket’ of his truck up and it struck the overhead bridge on the Ring Road near the Harbanspura grid station. The bridge collapsed on the truck and crushed the vehicle.
Hundreds of bystanders gathered at the scene and sought to pull out the driver, but heavy machinery was needed to remove the debris. Rescue 1122 later called cranes to remove the collapsed section of the concrete bridge.
Rescue officials said that the driver had been crushed under the weight. They said an autopsy was being conducted.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif arrived at the scene and ordered an inquiry. District Coordination Officer Noorul Amin Mengal and Commissioner Jawad Raffique Malik also visited the accident site.
Officials of the National Engineering Service of Pakistan (NESPAK) who had visited the scene of the accident said that the driver had likely raised the truck bucket to clean it, which was a common but illegal practice by truckers. They said that oil from the hydraulic pump that raises the bucket in the truck was leaked all over the road, indicating that the bucket was up.
They said that the raised bucket struck the beam, which rested on the pillar via a projection that fit inside a recess in the column. The impact of the bucket on the beam broke the wall of the recess and the beam came crashing down on the truck. They said that there was no other attachment between the beam and column.
Ring Road Authority Deputy Director Najam Waheed told The Express Tribune that there were 20 overhead pedestrian bridges on the Northern Loop of the Ring Road of which at least 16 were concrete constructions of the same design as the bridge that collapsed.
Col (retired) Asim, the director for enforcement as well as operations and maintenance in the Lahore Ring Road Authority, said that the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team had been tasked with conducting an inquiry. He said that veteran civil engineers would be involved in the inquiry. He said that only physical impact could have brought the bridge down.
He said that under agreements with the Ring Road Authority, the construction companies that had built pedestrian bridges were to maintain the bridges for a year or two before the authority took responsibility.
He said the bridge that collapsed had been built in June 2009, while the railing had been installed in September that year, by Khalid Rauf and Company.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 29th, 2012.
A truck driver from Sargodha was killed inside his vehicle by a pedestrian bridge in an accident on the Ring Road in North Cantonment on Thursday.
Officials said that Rana Sajjad, 25, a resident of Chak 43, Sargodha, was driving with the ‘bucket’ of his truck up and it struck the overhead bridge on the Ring Road near the Harbanspura grid station. The bridge collapsed on the truck and crushed the vehicle.
Hundreds of bystanders gathered at the scene and sought to pull out the driver, but heavy machinery was needed to remove the debris. Rescue 1122 later called cranes to remove the collapsed section of the concrete bridge.
Rescue officials said that the driver had been crushed under the weight. They said an autopsy was being conducted.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif arrived at the scene and ordered an inquiry. District Coordination Officer Noorul Amin Mengal and Commissioner Jawad Raffique Malik also visited the accident site.
Officials of the National Engineering Service of Pakistan (NESPAK) who had visited the scene of the accident said that the driver had likely raised the truck bucket to clean it, which was a common but illegal practice by truckers. They said that oil from the hydraulic pump that raises the bucket in the truck was leaked all over the road, indicating that the bucket was up.
They said that the raised bucket struck the beam, which rested on the pillar via a projection that fit inside a recess in the column. The impact of the bucket on the beam broke the wall of the recess and the beam came crashing down on the truck. They said that there was no other attachment between the beam and column.
Ring Road Authority Deputy Director Najam Waheed told The Express Tribune that there were 20 overhead pedestrian bridges on the Northern Loop of the Ring Road of which at least 16 were concrete constructions of the same design as the bridge that collapsed.
Col (retired) Asim, the director for enforcement as well as operations and maintenance in the Lahore Ring Road Authority, said that the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team had been tasked with conducting an inquiry. He said that veteran civil engineers would be involved in the inquiry. He said that only physical impact could have brought the bridge down.
He said that under agreements with the Ring Road Authority, the construction companies that had built pedestrian bridges were to maintain the bridges for a year or two before the authority took responsibility.
He said the bridge that collapsed had been built in June 2009, while the railing had been installed in September that year, by Khalid Rauf and Company.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 29th, 2012.