At least five people were killed and 11 injured on Saturday when a pickup tuck collided with a trailer in Jhirk, Thatta, police said.

According to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Imran Khan, the deceased were labourers on their way to a factory in Kotri when the Suzuki pickup they were travelling in collided with a 22-wheel trailer.

The accident took place near Hameed Fruit Farm, SSP Khan said.

All the injured have been shifted to Kotri Hospital, according to SSP Khan. He added that the labourers were members of the Behrani community.

The Suzuki pickup was completely crushed in the accident, while the trailer has been impounded and the driver and conductor have been arrested, the SSP said.

Earlier this month, four members of a family died and 10 others suffered injuries in a head-on collision between a passenger coach and a car on the Indus Highway near Khairpur Nathan Shah bypass.

The four belonging to the Memon community were going in a car to the village of Kanhiar Lakhiar in K.N. Shah from Moro to offer condolences over the death of a relative.

In April, six people died and 35 suffered injuries when a coach ploughed into an oil tanker on Indus Highway at Manjhand near Sehwan town. The coach was on its way to Karachi from Larkana when it met the accident at Rabnawaz Hotel stop in Manjhand town.

According to officials, as many as 115 people have been killed and 317 injured in a total of 97 traffic accidents on an incomplete section of the Indus Highway between Jamshoro and Sehwan during the last four years.

The 130-kilometre-long dual carriageway of the Indus Highway, known as N-55, remained incomplete between Jamshoro and Sehwan despite the fact that the Rs14 billion road project was launched in December 2017 and the Sindh government had already provided Rs7bn as its 50 per cent share of the project’s cost.

Road accidents with high fatalities are common in Pakistan due to lax safety measures, poor driver training and decrepit transport infrastructure.

Passenger buses and trucks are frequently crammed to capacity and seatbelts are not commonly worn, meaning high death tolls from single-vehicle accidents are common.

According to the World Health Organisation estimates, more than 27,000 people were killed on Pakistan’s roads in 2018.