LAHORE : August 20,2023: Yet another road accident claimed at least 19 precious lives on wee hours on Sunday when an Islamabad- bound bus crashed into a van carrying diesel drums near Pindi Bhattian on M-3 Motorway.
The ill-fated bus with 35-40 passengers on board left from Karachi for Islamabad and it collided with a Suzuki van carrying diesel drums on M-3 when it reached close to Pindi Bhattian interchange.
District Police Officer (DPO) Hafizabad, Dr Fahad , confirmed deaths of 19 passengers and injuring of 17 other passengers in the accident.
Only a few passengers who managed to smash window glasses of the bus to jump out of it could save their lives. Imdad Ali ,a passenger of the ill-fated buss told to the local media that almost everybody in the bus was asleep when the driver applied sudden brakes and it smashed many passengers into their front seats. No body knows what happened and then all of a sudden a flash of fire engulfed the bus. He said there was a big bang following the collision of the bus with a Suzuki van loaded with diesel drums ..Imdad Ali recalled that the entire bus was in flames in a few seconds after the accident and there was almost no time for on board passengers to save their lives except breaking window glasses and jump out of the bus.
‘I heard shouting and shrilling of the trapped passengers and in fear of life started to break the window glass of the bus close to my seat. It took me a very short time to break the window glass and then jump out of the bus to protect myself from the ragging fire” .
Pakistan is a country where the ratio of road accidents is perhaps more than any other country on the planet. In the last around 6 months , many precious lives perished in major raid accidents . In recent past , a bus fell down from a bridge in Lasbella which claimed 41 lives. A road accident on M-2 due to reckless driving of the bus driver claimed 13 lives .
Lack of a regulation system and none compliance of road rules by the drivers and long duties taken by bus owners are major cause of fatal road accidents in Pakistan.
