KARACHI, Dec 31: Police early on Wednesday arrested driver of the trailer involved in an accident on Tuesday that had claimed 18 lives in Bin Qasim area.

The SHO of Bin Qasim, Amjad Channa, told Dawn that the driver, Roshan Jameel, was arrested in Mauripur. During interrogation, he maintained that he had been asleep and the trailer was being driven by another person, Shaukat Ali, when the accident occurred.

The SHO said that Shaukat Ali had since fled to Faisalabad and a police party had been dispatched for his arrest. The FIR of the case had been lodged on behalf of the state, he added.

Meanwhile, bodies of the 18 victims, all security guards, were collected by their relatives from Edhi morgue on Wednesday. The accident had taken place near Port Qasim Authority as a pick up carrying about 20 persons collided with the trailer. Seventeen people died on the spot while another one succumbed to his injuries later at a hospital.

The survivors, Ghulam Mustafa and Mukhtar, are under treatment at the JPMC. Eleven of the bodies were collected by the Crown Security Company, Edhi officials said, which made arrangements for their transportation to the victims' native towns.