Bus was not fit to ply on roads: officials

The driver had been using the link road to avoid the highway police at the toll plaza

KARACHI: Police seem to have made some headway into ascertaining the cause of the highway accident and largely pointing towards the owner and driver of the passenger coach for the tragedy. Meanwhile, investigators have also obtained samples of the material in the tanker and sent it for chemical analysis.

At least 62 passengers onboard the Shikarpur-bound Geo a-Shoaib coach burned alive when it collided with a tanker on Kathore Link Road. Though the police have traced the drivers and owners of the bus and the tanker, the suspects have yet to be arrested.

In the meantime, the investigation team has found that the passenger coach was plying on the road with an expired route permit and no fitness certificate since the last nine years.

The bus was registered in 2004 and its fitness certificate expired in 2005. Since then, the bus was plying on the road without having been evaluated for fitness. The route permit issued to the bus had also expired. The team also found that there are four coaches plying on the road under the name of Geo al-Shoaib. Each of these vehicles is owned by a different person, had different drivers and cleaners. They were, however, all managed by one clerk.

The investigation team's report also blames the traffic department for negligence. However, the latter rebutted the allegations. "To avoid the police personnel, the drivers have started travelling at night when the personnel are usually off duty," said Malir Traffic police SSP Asghar Usman told The Express Tribune.

The Regional Transport Authority secretary, Manshad Ali, agreed. He blamed the bus owners and drivers for openly flouting the traffic rules. "The passenger bus was transporting hazardous chemicals which caused the fire to erupt," Ali told The Express Tribune. He added that though the official route of the bus was from Sohrab Goth to Shikarpur, it had been using the link road to avoid the highway police at the toll plaza.

Ali said the drivers were often under influence. "They drivers drive continuously for 12 hours every day and that too, under the influence of alcohol and marijuana." Meanwhile, experts from the bomb disposal squad have reexamined the bus and the tanker on Wednesday to determine the cause of the fire. "It is confirmed that the tanker contained some kind of inflammable substance," Investigations SP Malik Altaf told The Express Tribune. "We have sent the samples to the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research laboratory and the report is expected in a week."

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2015.