Road accident: Multiple-vehicle crash kills four

ISLAMABAD: A pile-up involving 14 cars and lorries killed two and injured dozens on Charsadda-Peshawar motorway near Swat River. According to the police, the crash was caused due to poor visibility owing to heavy fog. The injured and the dead have been shifted to the DHQ Hospital Charsadda and other hospitals in Peshawar.

Thirteen injured were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, sources said. Traffic on the Charsadda-Peshawar motorway remained paralysed. The accident occurred six kilometres away from Charsadda, police officials added. “I couldn’t see anything and didn’t have a second to pull the brake,” said a driver, who suffered a head injury in the crash.

While some blamed the fog for their misfortune, others questioned whether those who escape the highway should be held partly responsible for the accident. Rescue 1122 and police are making efforts to remove the destroyed vehicles from the site. In other parts of the Punjab and K-P the freezing conditions and heavy snow is causing problems with major roads being forced to close.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2010.