KARACHI: Four persons were killed and 22 others injured in a head-on collision between a coaster and dumper truck on Northern Bypass on the outskirts of the city on Monday morning, according to the area police, hospital sources and rescue services.

The death toll was feared to increase as the condition of two injured persons was stated to be critical.

The coaster, carrying a picnic party, was on its way to a farmhouse.

Among the dead was the dumper truck driver. The injured victims included five women and two brothers (aged 4 and 8 years). Almost all the other injured victims appeared to be youths employed by a well-known international food chain.

The traffic police and Motorway Police disputed over the jurisdiction of the accident site.

An Edhi Foundation spokesperson attributed the cause of the accident to reckless or negligent driving.

Preliminary inquiry suggested that the collision took place when the coaster driver tried to overtake another vehicle and his vehicle was hit by the speeding dumper truck coming from the opposite direction along a one-way road.

West-SSP Faisal Bashir Memon told Dawn that the truck went out of its driver’s control after the collision and plunged into a roadside ditch.

The SSP said that the injured persons were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced four of them dead.

Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed said that three persons, Mohsin Ijaz, 21, Mohammed Ahmed, 20, and Ejaz Khan, 31, were brought dead to the hospital while the fourth one, Sultan Mohammed, 70, died during treatment.

She said that 22 injured persons were provided emergency treatment at the hospital and then shifted by their employers to the Aga Khan University Hospital for further treatment.

DIG Traffic Ahmed Nawaz Cheema told Dawn that Northern Bypass did not fall within the jurisdiction of the city traffic police. It was actually in the jurisdiction of the Motorway Police like the Lyari Expressway and Superhighway, he added.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2023