In yet another accident involving a heavy vehicle in Karachi, a trailer truck claimed the lives of two young men in the New Chali area on late Saturday night, according to police and rescue services officials.
The city has lately witnessed a rise in traffic accidents — especially involving heavy vehicles, including dumpers and water tankers — which killed nearly 500 people and injured 4,879 were in 2024, according to hospital data.
A total of nine dumpers and water tankers were set on fire by angry mobs in Karachi on Wednesday night near the main road leading to 4-K Chowrangi after a heavy vehicle hit a bike rider, injuring him in the North Karachi area.
Mithadar police Station House Officer Naseer Ahmed Tanoli told Dawn that a trailer killed two men riding a motorcycle on Sharea Liaquat.
“The trailer was coming from II Chundrigar Road towards the old CIA Centre while the victims were on their way from Techno City using Altaf Husain Hali Road,” SHO Tanoli said.
He added that the trailer hit the victims when they reached New Chali roundabout, dying on the scene.
The bodies were shifted to the Trauma Centre of Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi for legal formalities.
“The victims were identified as Zaid Ali and Noor Mohammed Aslam,” the police official said, adding that the police have arrested an errant driver namely Abid Ali and impounded the heavy vehicle.
He said it appeared to be a case of reckless and negligent driving. However, the driver, in his statement, claimed that the pillion-riders came under the wheels of the trailer while involved in over-speeding.
The Mithadar police have registered a first information report under section 320 of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of Yaseen, maternal uncle of the deceased persons. He said the victims were close relatives and residents of Edu Lane in Kalri area of Lyari.
Late on Thursday night, a water tanker was torched by an angry mob in North Nazimabad. Shahrah-i-Noor Jehan SHO Abid Husain Shah told Dawn that the tanker driver had struck a motorcyclist near Paposh Nagar. The bike rider was injured, but the tanker driver fled the scene along with the heavy vehicle.
However, a group of 10-12 people chased and intercepted him near Five Star Chowrangi. They initially attacked the driver and damaged the vehicle’s windows. Thereafter, they set the heavy vehicle on fire.
With recent traffic accidents in Karachi causing enraged mobs to torch heavy vehicles that were responsible for them, Awami National Party (ANP) Sindh Chapter President Shahi Sayed along with MQM-P Chairman Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, tried to pacify the situation by saying that the ongoing issues plaguing the city including road mishaps are an administrative failure, not the product of an ethnic issue, on Saturday.
On Friday, Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that the provincial government had formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the causes of traffic accidents that had suddenly increased since November last in the metropolis.
Speaking at a press conference, he said that since November 2024, 603 people had been killed in road traffic accidents, 160 of them involving heavy vehicles.
