KHAIRPUR: At least 16 people including five women were killed and 20 wounded in a head-on collision between a passenger bus and a truck at Mehran National Highway in Kahirpur district on Wednesday morning.
According to detail, a Daewo passenger coach was going to Karachi from Islamabad, when reached at Peer Sadaq Ali Bus stop near Sui Gas, it collided with a truck which was coming from opposition side resulting in death of 13 passengers including driver of both vehicles on the spot while other 3 passengers succumbed their injuries on way to hospitals and in hospitals.
The dead bodies were identified as Shoukat Qureshi, Muhammad Hassan, Sultana, Hazrat Ali khan, Hayat, Muhammad Taiyab, Abdul Aziz, Zulfiqar, Hamadullah, Riaz Ahmed, Mehmood Arshad, Faisal Mahar, Jawad Ali, Hamadullah, Irfan Asad, Zohaib Kausar, Gulzar Begum while injured include Hamza Mustafa, Sehrish, Sajid, Jamila, Anela, Ishtiaq, Rashid and Asad.
Rescue and security teams reached the accident site. Locals assisted the rescue personnel in shifting the victims to a nearby hospital. Later the injured were shifted to Tharimirwah, Gambat and civil hospital Khairpur.
An emergency was declared at the Khairpur Civil Hospital, Thairmirwah and Gambat where doctors confirmed that 16 people had died and 20 others, including women and children, were wounded and admitted in the hospitals.
Sources said that the driver of the fast-moving bus, traveling from Islamabad to Karachi, lost control of the vehicle he switched off the head lights which caused it to crash into a truck coming from the opposite direction. The sources added that another reason of the fatal accident was the dilapidated condition of the road.
Commissioner Sukkur Abbas Baloch and Deputy Commissioner Khairpur Munawar Ali Mithiani visited Thari Mirwah hospital and inquired from injured passengers and orders for better medical facilities.
Mean while Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Sindh Chief Minister Sayed Qaim Ali Shah expressed their concern over death of the passengers and issued direction for better medical facilities to injured.
Earlier in November, 58 people, including women and children, were killed and several others injured following a collision between a passenger coach and a truck near Theri Bypass area of Khairpur.
Road accidents are frequent in Pakistan and claim thousands of lives annually due to poor roads, badly-maintained vehicles and reckless driving.
INP