Train hits car at Gojra crossing; six of a family dead

Published January 23, 2017
GOJRA: Relatives of the six victims grieve at the scene of the accident.—INP
GOJRA: Relatives of the six victims grieve at the scene of the accident.—INP

TOBA TEK SINGH: Six members of a family, including a woman and a child, died when a Lahore-bound train hit their car at an unmanned crossing, 14km from Gojra town, on Sunday.

According to police and witnesses, the car broke down and came to a halt on the tracks near village 93-JB at about 11.30am. As the driver was trying to start the car, the 43-Up Night Coach (Shalimar-2) going from Karachi smashed into it, tearing the vehicle into pieces.

Mansab Ali Kalyar, 45, his wife Shahnaz, 35, eight-year-old son Faizan Ahmad, brother Muhammad Nasir Iqbal, 42, father-in-law Falak Sher and nephew Muhammad Afzal, 26, died. Five of them belonged to village 148/47-GB in the Sillanwali area of Sargodha district, while Falak Sher hailed from Chiniot.

Relatives reached the crash site and took away the bodies.

They said that Mansab Kalyar had a paralysis attack and was being brought to a spiritual healer in a village near Gojra.

Scores of villagers blocked the tracks for about four hours in protest over the failure of the railways authorities to install a manned gate at the crossing.

PML-N MNA Chaudhry Khalid Javed Warraich held talks with the protesters and promised that the gate would be installed within two months.

Bashir Ahmad of Chak 93-JB and other protesters told reporters that the Pacca Anna railway station was less than a kilometre from the crossing and it was not difficult to manage its gate at the timings of the trains. They added that it was just a crossing station and no train stopped there, so it was not beneficial for the people of over 10 villages around it but the crossing was a great trouble for the motorists and bikers. Dozens of people had been killed or injured in accidents at the same crossing during the past few years, they said.

They said a man belonging to Azad Kashmir had died about eight months ago when he failed to see a coming train early in the morning and his car was crushed.

They suggested that if it was difficult to install a manned gate, an underpass could be built to save human lives.

Railways officials told Dawn that there were 42 approved level crossings in Toba Tek Singh district, of which 29 were unmanned where accidents happened frequently.

At one crossing near the district jail on the Toba-Shorkot Cantonment road, prison authorities had installed a temporary gate and deputed wardens to manage it, they said.

Rescue 1122 and district police record showed that at least 12 people died in accidents at unmanned crossings in Toba Tek Singh during the past year.

According to television reports, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said during a press conference in Lahore that 80 people had died at unmanned crossings across the country during the past three years. He said there were 2,470 unmanned crossings on the entire railway network and the provinces were responsible for bearing expenses on maintaining the crossings.

He said Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had released Rs100 million for the purpose.

The minister said that most accidents on the railway network in the recent past had taken place because of human error. He said underpasses were required at unmanned crossings.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2017

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