‘Ill-fated bus neither had route permit,nor fitness certificate’

Karachi
The Sindh High Court was informed on Tuesday that a Shikarpur-bound bus, which met with an accident at the National Highway and Super Highway link road that caused the death of 67 passengers, neither had a route permit nor a valid fitness certificate.
The regional transport authority (RTA) secretary submitted his report to the court wherein it was stated that a permit issued to the operator of the bus for the Karachi to Sukkur route via Superhighway Hyderabad had expired on December 17, 2006. The fitness certificate of the bus had also expired on January 11, 2005. The operator had not approached the RTA for renewing the permit.
The court was hearing a plea for a judicial inquiry into the horrific traffic accident.
The RTA secretary submitted that the bus was operating from Karachi to Shikarpur via the Quaidabad link road, which was a single track route and not classified for such purpose.
It was pointed out in the report that the driver of the oil tanker truck was overtaking another truck and collided with the bus.
The link road was in a deplorable condition – another compounding cause of the accident.
It was mentioned in the report that traffic laws related to the fitness of vehicle, route permit, steps and fire extinguishers were grossly violated while the relevant agencies had failed to enforce them.
The Landhi fire brigade responded late while the lackluster response by the nearest fire brigade of the Pakistan Steel Mills was questionable.
The link road was uneven and rugged, causing a threat to all vehicles and urgently needed carpeting.
The RTA secretary said the negligence of the traffic police was also evident as most of the vehicles were operating in violation of the traffic laws related to emergency gates, fitness certificates and fire extinguishers.
The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation also filed a report mentioning that the Landhi fire brigade had responded quickly, but the site of the accident was 38 or 40 kilometres away.
The petitioner, Justice Helpline, a non-governmental organisation, had submitted in its application that 67 citizens had lost their lives in a road accident because of the negligence of oil tanker truck’s driver and lack of safety measures.
Its counsel had submitted that the fire brigade of the Pakistan Steel Mills, which was near the place of accident, had refused to assist in the rescue operation. The fire station at the cattle colony that was closer to the site of the accident had closed after 5pm.
He had submitted that there was an acute shortage of fire tenders in the city and requested the court to take notice of the matter. He had also requested the court to direct the authorities concerned to conduct DNA tests of the victims so that their bodies could be identified and compensate their heirs.