Road accidents hardly make breaking or important news in Pakistan, given the enormity of the cases. A visit to any territorial hospital’s emergency ward will show that dozens of people with broken bones, and fractured body parts are brought there daily, and most of them suffer injuries due to bone-breaking roads, rash driving and so on. Two days ago, in one such deadly incident, a high-speed air-conditioned bus travelling from Lahore to Karachi crashed into an oil tanker near Bahawalpur on Tuesday, killing 20 passengers, including the driver and conductor, while four passengers remained unhurt. The accounts of the survivors show that the accident occurred due to the bus driver’s careless driving. The overworked driver drowsed, which caused the speeding bus to crash into the oil tanker from the rare side. Due to the impact, a fire broke out leaving little or no time for the passengers to get out of the bus. This is not the only accident claiming so many lives on that day. A Swat-to-Karachi bus overturned at Sukkur while taking a turn at high speed at Rohri Interchange. The result: eight people, including children and women, were killed and 32 others were injured. The same week, 13 passengers were killed when a truck loaded with sugar bags fell on a passenger coach due to a pothole in Feroze Town near Rahim Yar Khan.
The data on road deaths in Pakistan is appalling. According to a global report on traffic accidents, an average of 35,000 to 40,000 people die in traffic accidents in Pakistan every year and many are permanently disabled. In the report, the main reason for traffic accidents is inexperienced and young drivers and people’s ignorance or violation of traffic rules. Moreover, the dilapidated condition of vehicles and roads, overloading and the irresponsibility of police personnel to a large extent. The occurrence of traffic accidents cannot be ignored. If this situation is really controlled and the laws are strictly enforced, then there can be a substantial help in their remedy.
