DERA GHAZI KHAN: Ten people were killed and 44 others injured when a passenger bus overturned after hitting a road divider on the Indus Highway in Rajanpur district’s Rojhan tehsil, Rescue 1122 said.
The accident occurred in the Bangla Hidayat area at around 5:45am. The bus was reportedly speeding when it collided with the divider and toppled over.
The deceased include seven men, two women and a girl, Rescue 1122 said in an incident report.
Of the 44 wounded, 38 were being treated at the Rajanpur District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, while four critically injured persons were referred to Dera Ghazi Khan and two seriously hurt to Rahim Yar Khan’s Sheikh Zayed Hospital.
Rescue 1122 said it “responded promptly” upon receiving the emergency call and mobilised 10 ambulances and two rescue vehicles from Rajanpur, Jampur and Rojhan. It said 35 rescuers took part in the emergency response.
Rajanpur Deputy Commissioner (DC) Imran Ranjha, the district police officer and the assistant commissioner also reached the site to oversee the situation and coordinate the response.
Later, Umerkot SHO Shakeel Dreshak told Dawn that a case had been registered at his police station, in which the bus driver was also named.
The first information report (FIR), seen by Dawn, was registered on the complaint of Sub-Inspector Shakeel Abbas and invoked Sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 322 (unintentional murder) and 337 (causing injury to head or face) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The FIR said the bus, which was travelling at a high speed, hit a divider on a road, turned on its side. The complainant accused the driver of negligence.
DC Ranjha initially told Dawn that the bus driver had fled the scene after the incident, as well as the bus’s owner. He later told Dawn that the driver had been taken into police custody and was being treated at a hospital.
On Monday, a road accident on Multan’s Bosan Road claimed the lives of five men in their 20s early after their speeding Toyota Corolla hit a road divider before crashing into the wall of a nearby plot and catching fire.
According to Rescue 1122, around 1,352 road traffic incidents, resulting in an average of 14 deaths, are reported per day across Punjab.
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