Reckless driving: Motorway accident kills six in Salt Range

Over 33 injured in the 16th accident this year on Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway

ISLAMABAD: At least six people died and over 33 were injured in the sixteenth fatal bus accident this year in the Salt Range area on Peshawar-Lahore Motorway (M2) when a bus carrying around 70 people overturned near Lillah Interchange, Kallar Kahar on Sunday, police and hospital sources said.

The bus was going to Raiwind, Lahore from Nowshera. Almost all of the passengers belonged to Nowshera.

The nine critically injured were later shifted to Rawalpindi and the remaining victims were under treatment at District Headquarters Hospital Chakwal.

Motorway Police said the vehicle’s brakes failed and it ran into the median and overturned. The police alleged that the driver was over-speeding.

DSP of Saddar area of Chakwal reached the spot soon after the emergency call by the Motorway Police. Ambulances and emergency vehicles ferried the dead and injured to the nearest hospital in Chakwal besides administering on-spot treatment to passengers, who had suffered minor injuries.

The bodies of the dead were later dispatched to their native towns.

Police sources said that 69 people have so far died in 16 such bus accidents in the very area of Salt Range. Last year, over 40 students of a private school from Faisalabad were killed in a similar bus accident in the area.

The dead included Muhammad Hassan, Kamal Shah, Muhammad Aslam, Muhammad Arif, Taj Muhammad and Dr. Fazal.

The nine critically injured shifted to Rawalpindi district headquarters hospital were Aurengzeb, Muhammad Yaseen, Tufail Khan, Zubair Khan, Israr Khan, Najeebullah, Neelum Khan and Muhammad Afzal Khan.

(With additional reporting by peer abdus sattar nadeem in chakwal)

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