Two people were killed on Saturday, while another was injured in separate incidents in Karachi as the death toll from traffic accidents across the metropolis rose.
According to Moachko police Station House Officer (SHO) Faisal Latif, a man was killed and another critically injured after a dumper (loaded truck) hit them on the main Hub River Road early in the morning.
While speaking to media.com, he said that the victims were travelling when an “apparently recklessly driven dumper” hit them from the side near Quetta Maulana Hotel.
SHO Latif said that the driver had escaped from the spot along with the truck, adding that the injured men were transported to the Civil Hospital Karachi’s (CHK) trauma centre. Shah Mohammed, 45, was pronounced dead after reaching CHK, while Imran — who is in critical condition — was admitted for treatment.
The police have registered a case against the unknown driver on the complaint of the deceased’s cousin Mohammed Iqbal, the officer said, adding that the deceased had arrived from Pishin in Balochistan at Hub Chowki.
“He was coming to Karachi to his relatives at Naval Colony in rickshaw when the accident happened,” the SHO said.
In a separate incident, an unidentified young man was killed in a hit-and-run incident on the main National Highway in Malir.
Shah Latif Town poilce SHO Raja Abbas told media.com that the man in his early 30s was crossing the highway near Anwar Baloch Hotel when an unidentified vehicle hit him.
The man was taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where he was pronounced dead. SHO Abbas said that his identity could not be ascertained immediately.
Rules restricting the movement of heavy vehicles were recently implemented in the metropolis amid rising traffic accidents involving dumpers and tankers and protests over the deaths of citizens.
Last month, the provincial government banned the entry of heavy vehicles into the city during the daytime, only allowing them to operate from 11pm to 6am.
Exemptions, however, were granted to trucks carrying water, petroleum products, medicines, meat and other essential goods.
The Sindh government has also made it mandatory for all heavy vehicles in Karachi to have a physical fitness certificate amid the rising number of traffic accidents involving dumper trucks.
Rights activists and members of civil society said yesterday that the increasing number of fatal road accidents in the city and the poor state of traffic law enforcement are violations of human rights, which the state has failed to safeguard.
Last month, provincial lawmakers belonging to the MQM-P criticised the traffic police for its “failure” to control the heavy vehicles that claimed over 80 lives in January alone.
Four people, including a 10-year-old, were killed, and one was injured in three separate accidents across Karachi yesterday.
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