SUKKUR: A man was killed and 15 others were injured when a coach overturned and skidded into a ditch in Bakhshapur area on Wednesday while trying to save a motorcycle coming from the opposite direction.

The coach carrying 45 passengers was coming from Dera Ghazi Khan when it met with the accident, said police.

Police mobile vans, ambulances and other private vehicles shifted the injured to different hospitals of Bakhshapur, Ghouspur, Kandhkot, Kashmore and Guddu thermal power station hospital.

Kandhkot-Kashmore SSP Younis Chandio told journalists that heavy cranes had been called from Guddu to pull out the coach from the ditch. The coach was overloaded and many passengers were travelling on its rooftop while both the motorcycle and the bus were driving fast, which led to the tragedy, he said.

The coach driver might have noticed the motorcycle at the 11th hour and tried not to hit him, eventually losing control of the vehicle, he said, adding the matter was being investigated.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2014