RAHIM YAR KHAN: At least 13 people were killed and 20 injured in an accident late on Friday nig­ht on the Sukkur-Multan Motorway, some 50km north of Rahim Yar Khan.

According to locals, a van was going towards Kara­chi when it overturned due to a tyre burst near the Thul Hassan area of Mohammadpur on the motorway.

A bus of devotees coming from Multan stopped to help the injured. As passengers were involved in rescue activity, a land cruiser ran over them and overturned.

The injured were moved to Sheikh Zayed Medical College Hospital (SZMCH) and Rural Health Centre in Zahirpir, according to officials.

SZMCH spokesperson Medical Superintendent Rana Ilyas Ahmed told Dawn that the deceased were aged between four and 50.

He added that 13 bodies were shifted to native areas on Saturday morning.

A source in the National Highway and Motorway Police said the accident happened suddenly, leaving the police with no time to place safety cones to alert other drivers.

This is the second major accident on a motorway in less than a week.

On Sunday night, at least 14 members of a wedding party, including women and children, were killed and 64 were injured, after a bus overturned and fell into a ravine near Kallar Kahar on the Lahore-Islamabad M2 motorway.

The mishap had occurred as the vehicle’s brakes failed while taking a sharp turn.

Less than a month ago on Jan 29, 41 people were killed after a passenger coach fell into a ravine in Balochistan’s Lasbela.

The Karachi-bound bus crashed with the pillar of a bridge near the Cheneki area in Bela tehsil at the Quetta-Karachi National Highway in the early hours of the day.The bus carrying 44 passengers careened into the ravine and immediately caught fire which gutted the entire vehicle.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2023