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LAHORE, Aug 19: An inquiry has been ordered into a collision between a train and a truck near the Sahianwala railway station on Friday. Lahore divisional superintendent Shafqat Rabbani held the truck driver responsible for the collision, and a case against him had been registered with the police.
“The accident took place at an unmanned level crossing,” he told newsmen. He said the locomotive of the Badar Express and two coaches were damaged in the collision.
He said his presence at the site was not necessary as the people required for a relief operation were immediately sent to the spot and the section was cleared at 9:25am for traffic.
It is the second accident in the railways Lahore division in a week. Three bogies of the Khyber Mail had derailed near the Lahore Cantonment railway station on Aug 13.
UNMANNED CROSSINGS: Road users are supposed to cross the 2,710 unmanned level crossings over the railway system after examining that the line is clear.
The level crossing No 107 where the locomotive of the Lahore-bound Badar Express collided with a truck is two kilometres away from the Sahianwala railway station and has been unmanned since 1960.
BODIES: The bodies of loco driver Nawaz, fireman Khaliq and assistant fireman Khalid were handed over to their families in the evening.
Nawaz (50) was a resident of a katchi abadi near the Loco Shed Colony, Khaliq (42) lived in Tajpura while Akhtar (45) in railways pucca quarters near the Dars Baray Mian post office.
Relatives told newsmen that they had paid for the transportation of the bodies to Lahore from Faisalabad.
“A sum of Rs3,000 each has been given to the families for burial and that too out of the staff welfare fund,” a cousin of Khaliq said.
Railways minister Shamim Haider and PR Board chairman Shakil Durrani remained at the headquarters till evening in connection with an executive committee meeting of the railway board, but like other senior officers did not visit the grieved families.
