Dangerously driven: Seven children killed as truck smashes into house

Neighbours tried to rescue them but they had no tools to remove the truck.

FAISALABAD:

Seven children were killed and four others were injured when a truck crashed into a house on Sargodha Road near Kotwali-Jhang Saddar police area late on Wednesday night.

Rescue 1122 spokesman Muhammad Zubair told The Express Tribune that the truck, loaded with vegetables, had driven in from Dera Ghazi Khan. He said its tie-rod came undone near Pindi Mohallah.

He said the driver lost control of the vehicle and it smashed into Muhammad Ramzan’s mudhouse.

He said the house was destroyed in the collision and seven children, Ramazan, his wife Sardaran Bibi, their two children Rizwan and Sadia were buried beneath the debris.

He said seven children - four-year-old Mafiya, five-year-old Farhat, eight-year-old Musarrat, 10-year-old Rabia, 12-year-old Nadia, six-year-old Abdur Rehman, 14-year-old Imran – were also caught under the debris.

Scores of people of the locality tried to rescue them but could not pull them out.

The spokesman said Rescue 1122 officials pulled them out after several hours.

He said Mafia, Farhat, Musarrat, Rabia, Nadia, Abdur Rehman and Imran had died. He said Ramazan, Sardaran Bibi, Rizwan and Sadia were taken to a hospital where doctors said Ramazan and his son were in a critical condition.

Talking to newsmen, Ghufran Haidar, Ramazan’s neighbour, he was asleep when he heard the sound of a crash.

“I woke up and ran out of the house to see what had happened,” he said. He said he was joined by several other neighbours who had also been awakened by the crash.

“When I reached Ramazan’s house, I saw that it was completely destroyed,” he said. “The truck had overturned on top of it.”

He said neighbours had tried to pull out the family from underneath the truck but they had no tools to remove the truck.

The Kotwali SHO said a police had reached the site and took the bodies into custody.

He said the police had not received a formal complaint regarding the incident. He said a case would be registered against the truck driver after post mortem examination was complete.

The chief minister has ordered inquiry into the incident and sought a report from the district administration and police. In a statement, he expressed sympathy with the bereaved family and said the injured should be provided the best medical treatment. He also ordered arrest of the truck driver.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2015.