GUJAR KHAN: Five people were killed and as many others injured when seven vehicles rammed into an out-of-order oil tanker standing in the middle of the Bakrala bridge near Sohawa on Friday night.

Police said the oil tanker remained parked on the bridge for the last three days. However, the National Highways and Motorway Police (NHMP) neither removed it nor diverted the traffic to the other side of the dual carriageway.

As the bridge comes immediately after a blind turn, the north-bound trucks loaded with coal, potatoes, sugarcane and other commodities rammed into it and some of them fell off the bridge.

As a result, Mohammad Safdar, Mohammad Akhtar, Sajid Rafiq and Ali Murtaza died on the spot while Faisal Sultan, Abdul Shakoor and Mohammad Mustafa sustained injuries and were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital, Jhelum. 

According to eyewitnesses, the NHMP did not take any precaution even after the pile-up and a Mazda truck and a trailer loaded with sugar bags rammed into the already piled-up vehicles and they too fell from the bridge.

This time, Abdul Jabbar died on the spot, while two other passengers were seriously injured.

When this reporter asked a NHMP patrolling officer about the out-of-order truck in the middle of the bridge, he could not give a convincing answer.

Asked why the traffic from Lahore side was not diverted to the other section of the dual carriageway after the midnight accident, the officer said there was no U-turn near the site of the accident.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2015

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