TOBA TEK SINGH: Three passengers died and at least two dozen were injured when a bus hit a trailer loaded with iron bars in early hours of Sunday near Chak 256/GB Philour on Faisalabad-Multan Road.

Rescue 1122 reported the Vehari-bound bus was coming from Faisalabad and its driver tried to overtake the trailer, which had long iron bars extending out of its back side while it had no warning light installed at the end of the bars. The bus driver could not see the iron bars as it was dark at 4:30am and his bus hit the iron bars, which broke the body of the bus and its windscreen. The iron bars entered the bodies of some passengers and caused critical injuries to at least a dozen of them.

Those three who died on the spot included as Javed Haider (24) of Chak 358/GB Mughli, Rajana and Muhammad Ibrar (25) of Kassowal. The third deceased, who was about 35 years old, could not be identified. His body is being kept in the District Headquarters Hospital mortuary.

Twelve passengers who were severely injured were identified as Muhammad Ali (39) of Vehari, his son Zohaib Ali (7) and his daughter Laraib (6), Asmatullah (35) of Chak 691/GB Pirmahal and his daughter Swera (16), Imran Manzoor (25) of Khanewal, Tanweer Hussain (26) of Chichawatni, Abdul Qayyum (38) and his cousin Adnan Ramzan (36), residents of Alipur, Muzaffargarh, Abdul Rashid (58) of Kamalia, Abdul Qayum (10) of Kamalia, Muhammad Ashfaq (25) of Kamalia and Muhammad Raees of Muzaffargarh. All the injured were shifted to the DHQ hospital.

The rest of the injured were given first aid by the Rescue 1122 and they were allowed to continue their journey. The drivers of the bus and trailer escaped after the accident.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2021