JHANG: Fourteen people were killed and 23 others injured Saturday in a head-on collision between a passenger bus and a mini truck near Adda Nasirabad on Jhang-Khushab Road.
Ten passengers were killed on the spot, one succumbed to his injuries while being shifted to a hospital and another three died at the DHQ Hospital.
The ill-fated air conditioned bus was en route from Karachi to Chakwal. A large number of people from the surrounding villages rushed to join rescue efforts.
The injured were first shifted by Rescue 1122 to THQ Hospital
18 Hazari but one of them Abdul Rashid died in an ambulance. Later, the remaining were rushed to the DHQ Hospital Jhang – located 30 kilometres from the accident scene – due to the non-availability of surgeon and non-functional operation theatre. The doctors tried to shift three seriously injured passengers – Ali, Ahmed Sher and Musa – to Allied Hospital Faisalabad but they succumbed to their injuries in Jhang’s hospital.
The condition of five of the injured persons, including women and children, is stated to be critical.
The victims have been identified as Shakeel, Hafiz Nazakat, Arshad, Azhar, Ghaus, Asif, Bakhsheesh Ali, Nauman, Babar, Asghar Ali, Akram, Sher Muhammad, Kamran and Sher Abbas.
Kalsoom Bibi, Maria, Sajjad Ali, Shah Muhammad, Saleem, Sadiq Ali, Ameer Khan, Musa Khan, Ali Ahmad, Mudassar Hussain and Amjad Ali are among the injured.
Police said initial investigation suggested that the fatal accident was caused by the carelessness of the truck driver.
Earlier on Wednesday, six people were also killed Jhang-Khushab Road in a collision between a bus and a van near Adda Kot Shakir. The cause of these regular deadly accidents on the said road is its poor condition and narrow width with an increasing traffic flow.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif expressed his profound grief and sorrow over the loss of precious lives and directed the quarters concerned to provide best possible medical care to the injured.
