Reckless driving: Seven people killed in separate road accidents

Five others sustained injuries in mishaps in two days.

SUKKUR: Seven people, including three minor children, were killed and five others sustained injuries in separate road accidents in Sukkur, Ghotki and Shikarpur on Sunday night and Monday morning.

In the first incident at the City bypass on Monday, four people were crushed to death. After getting off a passenger bus, Amanullah Talani, his 12-year-old nephew Abdul Qadeer, and Tahir hired a rickshaw to reach a bus terminal that will take them to Sukkur. When the rickshaw reached Airport Road, a Datsun pickup loaded with vegetables fell on the rickshaw after colliding head-on with a car. All four occupants of the rickshaw, including its driver, died as a result.

Meanwhile, the drivers of the car and the pick-up van managed to escape from the scene. Airport police have impounded both the vehicles. The bodies of the victims were shifted to Civil Hospital, Sukkur, for autopsies.

In another incident, a labourer was killed and three others suffered injuries when a car dashed into a roadside hotel near a wholesale fruit and vegetable market within the jurisdiction of SITE police station. The car driver, Shahid Hussain Mako, was also injured. The other two injured include Maula Bux and Raheem Bux. The labourer, Mumtaz Ali Keehar, was a resident of village Daud Ji Wandh, Shikarpur.

The SITE police have arrested the driver and impounded the car but they have yet to register any case.

Four-year-old girl Parveen Soomro was killed and two others were injured when a speeding trailer hit a motorcycle near Dargah Anwar Shah Badshah in the Sarhad police limits in Ghotki on Sunday night. After paying homage at the dargah, Ali Nawaz Soomro, his infant daughter, and his cousin, Shaman Soomro, were on way to their way to village Gulsher Soomro when a speeding trailer hit their motorcycle. Parveen was killed on the spot, while her father and uncle suffered injuries. The driver of the trailer fled the scene, leaving behind the vehicle.

Separately, seven-year-old Fayyaz Ali, son of Wajid Hussain Soomro, was crossing the road on Indus Highway when a speeding car hit him in Shikarpur on Sunday night. Khanpur police have arrested the car driver, Fayyaz Malik, and impounded the car.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2013.