Scene after an accident in Islamabad. PHOTO: FILE
One person was killed and 25 others were injured on Tuesday when a speeding bus rear-ended a tractor and plunged into Budala flood drain in the jurisdiction of Rawat Police Station.
The bus was carrying 30 employees of the Ministry of Finance to Chakwal where they were going to attend the funeral of a colleague’s father.
The bus hit the tractor on Sukho Bridge, some 40 kilometres from Rawalpindi and plunged into the five-foot deep drain.
“The impact of the collision was so powerful that it launched three passengers and the driver through the windscreen,” Shaukat, an eyewitness told The Express Tribune.
“It was the bus driver’s fault as he was driving rashly. He should have reduced speed on the narrow bridge, but he didn’t and hit a tractor from behind,” he said.
He said driver of the tractor was also knocked down and landed some 15 feet away from the tractor.
Zahid, another eyewitness, said locals working in nearby fields rushed to the site and started assisting victims. “We pulled out people who were trapped in the bus and shifted them to hospitals in our own vehicles,” he said.
He added that three people who were sitting in front seats had serious injuries including broken legs and deep head injuries.
“An injured man identified as Superintendent Ameen had deep head injuries and bled to death,” he said.
He said the driver of the tractor was still unconscious when he was shifted to the hospital.
“The locals had shifted almost all of the injured to hospitals by the time we got here,” said Kamran, a rescue worker for the Edhi Foundation.
He said Edhi rescue workers also shifted five injured persons. A Rescue 1122 official told The Express Tribune the critically injured 52-year old Dildar and 46-year old Fareed have been shifted to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims).
He said three people in all were shifted to Pims, 11 to District Headquarters Hospital and the rest to Bagga Sheikhan Hospital.
The Rawat police reached the site long after the injured people had been shifted to hospital and the road was cleared by locals. “We set out as soon as we received information about the incident,” said Rawat Police Station House Officer Muhammad Yousaf.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 13th, 2013.
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