Triple tragedy: Over 70 dead in horrific highway crashes

President, prime minister express their grief over loss of lives

SUKKUR/ QUETTA/ KARACHI:

A fierce blaze sparked by a collision between an oil tanker and a passenger bus on a highway link road left at least 62 people, including women and children, dead in the wee hours of Sunday.

The horrific collision occurred on the 17 kilometre-long Kathore link road that connects the Super Highway with the National Highway – which is about 36 kilometres away from Sohrab Goth and falls under the National Highway Authority’s jurisdiction.

Two other deadly accidents in Sindh’s Naushero Feroz district and Uthal near Balochistan’s Lasbela district claimed another 10 lives and left scores injured.

Some 66 passengers were travelling aboard the Shikarpur-bound al Shoaib coach. They were heading to their hometowns from different localities of Karachi’s Malir district.  Most of the victims belonged to Shikarpur, Khairpur and Sukkur.

Four passengers sitting on the roof of the bus escaped death by jumping off the vehicle just as it hit the tanker.

Initial investigations faulted the oil tanker for the accident, as the vehicle came from the wrong side of the road and rammed into the bus.

All the victims of the ill-fated bus were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) where an emergency was declared following the accident.

“Some 62 bodies were brought to our hospital [JPMC]. The bodies were charred. Most of them were clustered,” said the hospital’s joint executive director Dr Seemin Jamali told The Express Tribune.

“With autopsies, we have also collected the samples of all the bodies for the DNA test. Twenty-four blood samples of the victims’ relatives have been taken,” she explained. “The hospital is waiting for more relatives to share their blood samples.”

The country’s road accident record seems to have become worse. Sunday’s collision was the second crash involving major loss of life in the province of Sindh in less than three months.

All the bodies have been moved to the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth while four passengers have been discharged following medical treatment.

It is not clear whether the drivers and cleaners of the oil tanker and the bus survived Sunday’s crash or not. “It seems that the drivers and cleaners of the bus and tanker managed to escape. We are trying to trace their owners,” Malir district police chief SSP Rao Anwar told The Express Tribune.

SSP Anwar claimed that the fire was triggered by the explosion of the CNG cylinders fitted on the bus, insisting that the oil tanker had not exploded.

“Dozens of passengers were trapped inside the bus when its exits caught fire or were blocked,” he added.

Experts from the Bomb Disposal Squad also examined the bus and ruled out the possibility of terrorism.

Eye-witness account

“The flames of the fire were so high that they could be seen from even a few kilometres away. Though accidents on this road are usual this horrific crash is unprecedented,” said Jamil, who lives near the site of the accident.

The rescue operation started soon after the report of the incident and the provincial transport minister Ejaz Jakhrani and commissioner Karachi Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqi rushed to the scene.

Six killed in Quetta

Six people, including three children, were killed and 17 others were injured near Uthal area of Lasbela district on the RCD highway on Sunday when a speeding van overturned after its tyres exploded.

“The van went off the road and overturned,” Lasbela Deputy Commissioner Fawad Soomro told The Express Tribune.

“At least six people, including three children and a woman, died on the spot while 17 others sustained serious injuries,” he stated.

The bodies and the injured were shifted to District Headquarters Hospital Uthal. Most of the injured have been shifted to Karachi.

Four die in Sukkur

Four people, including children, were killed while 13 others were injured when a passenger coach crashed into a trailer on the National Highway near Nango Shah Mori, Naushero Feroze. Sources claimed that the coach was on its way to Karachi from Kohat.

President Mamnoon Hussain, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari have expressed their grief over the tragic accidents.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2015.