Speed thrills but kills: Speeding vehicle claims two bikers’ lives

The alleged drunk driver was taken into custody.

ISLAMABAD:

Two young men were killed and their friend injured when a speeding car hit their motorcycle late Tuesday night on one of the main highways of the city.

The four-wheeler hit and killed the two youth and injured the third on 9th Avenue near Fatima Jinnah Park. The driver, however, stopped and did not try to run away. He was arrested by the police.

Three friends — Zubair Mujahid and Amir Hamza, residents of Kot Addu and Kamran Ahmed, resident of Abbottabad, riding a bike came in the way of a speeding Toyota Vigo (RB 435) that jumped a red light.

“He must have been driving at over 140km/hour when it crushed the bikers,” said Sami, a witness of the incident. “It was a horrible sight,” he said. The bikers went up in the air and hit the median some 20 feet from the point of accident, said the witness.

Another witness said that many vehicles stopped to see what happened but no one came forward to pick up the victims and shift them to nearby Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) hospital which was hardly 2km from the accident site. “When I went up and touched the body of one of the victims, the other people discouraged me saying I would be stopped by the police,” said the witness who did not give his name.

He said that the police and the Rescue 1122 vehicles arrived with a delay of 15 to 20 minutes while the Margalla police were only 2-3 minutes away.

Doctors at Pims confirmed that Mujahid and Ahmed had died at the spot while Hamza was in critical condition.

The driver of the vehicle identified as Muhammad Mehtab, a resident of Rawalpindi, was taken into custody by the police. He tested positive for liquor, said the Margalla police. A case of drunk driving, and accidental death was registered against Mehtab, they added. The bodies of the victims were handed over to their families.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2013.