Five people dead in accident on Indus highway

HYDERABAD:

An accident on the fatal 136-kilometre stretch of the Indus Highway between Jamshoro and Sehwan, claimed five lives and left five others, including a woman and her three children, injured.

All of the victims, except the driver, belonged to the same Hyderabad-based family, who were going to visit shrine of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan. A woman, Sania Gaddi Pathan, 30, her son Samroz, 2, and daughter Mehroze, 6, were among the deceased, along with Asif Baloch, 35, and car driver Atif, 30. According to Manjhand police, the accident occurred near the town of Sann, on the highway. The driver lost control while trying to overtake a truck trawler causing the car to flip over several times before falling by a roadside depression.

"Some lives could have been saved if they received timely medical help," said Saleem Gaddi, a family member, at Civil Hospital, Hyderabad, where the injured were shifted from the taluka hospital. He alleged that the doctors at the taluka hospital took more than two hours to give first aid to the injured. Their mobile phones and cash are also missing, he added.

Civil hospital's Dr Shakeel Qureshi said that three injured persons, including two children, are in critical condition. 40-year-old Saeed, his wife 35-year-old Tahmina and their three children were injured.

Accidents frequently occur on the curvy single-lane road between Jamshoro and Sehwan. The area also lacks a proper medical facility. The district administration has time and again urged the authorities to deploy the motorway police on the road but to no avail.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2015.