DADU: Eight passengers were killed and 45 injured as a result of a collision of two buses on Mehran Highway near Nawabshah on Sunday.

The two buses, going from Peshawar to Karachi and from Karachi to Sadiqabad, collided head-on early in the morning at around 4:20am.

Shaheed Benazirabad DIG Mohammad Younis Chandio told Dawn the accident took place due to speeding. The driver of one of the coaches died while the other was injured.

Due to the high-impact collision, the front of both buses was badly damaged and rescue teams recovered bodies and injured by cutting through the vehicles’ structure.

Around 25 injured were admitted to Peoples Medical University Hospital in Nawabshah while 20 were transferred to Daur Taluka Hospital and Bandhi Hospital, according to Shaheed Benazirabad Range Commissioner Mohammad Abbas Baloch. Five severely injured passengers have been shifted to Karachi for treatment.

Passenger coaches collided due to speeding on Mehran Highway

The deceased have been identified as Qurban Ali, Abdul Majeed Solangi, Razia, Gul Agha Pathan, Mohammad Buxteer, Dar Bibi and bus driver Bakhat Shaeer. The bodies have been sent to their native areas for burial.

DIG Chandio and Commissioner Baloch along with deputy commissioner and SSP Shaheed Benazirabad also visited the spot and supervised the rescue work.

The DIG said the two buses were illegally travelling on the Mehran Highway as it was a single-lane dual carriageway and heavy vehicles were banned from plying on it. The damaged vehicles have been impounded and an investigation has been launched, he added.

Directives have been issued to Matiari, Nawabshah and Khairpur districts SSP to stop heavy vehicles on the highway and register FIRs against bus owners who violate the law and ply without route permits, DIG Chandio told Dawn.

The commissioner said Sukkur and Shaheed Benazirabad SSPs and deputy commissioners have been directed to stop passenger coaches on Mehran Highway and divert them to the National Highway.

This is the second major bus accident on a national highway in ten days. On June 17, 13 people, including five women, were killed and 31 others injured when a bus veered off the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway and overturned near Kallar Kahar.

The Jhang-bound bus was passing through the meandering part of the motorway at around 3:30pm when the driver lost control due to ‘brake failure’. The bus veneered off the divider and overturned on the opposite track.

In April, nine people were killed when a truck collided head-on with a minivan near Keenjhar Lake in Sindh’s Thatta district. The victims were residents of Karachi’s Malir district and went to the lake for a picnic.

The deadliest accident of the year happened in January when 41 people were killed after a passenger coach caught fire after falling into a ravine in Balochistan’s Lasbela area.

The vehicle, with nearly 48 passengers on board, was travelling from Quetta to Karachi when it crashed into the pillar of a bridge due to speeding while taking a U-turn. It then careened into a ravine and caught fire.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2023