Officials talking to APP Sunday said the overloaded coach was en-route to Shikarpur from Karachi when it collided with an oil tanker speeding from opposite direction on the single track link road, of the highway, engulfing the coach in fire. Deputy Executive Director and In-charge, Emergency and Accident Department, Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre, Dr Seemien Jamali said the number of dead may be higher than 60 as most of them are completely burnt and stuck to each other. She specifically referred to the bodies of at least six children stuck to women who may have been their mothers and said under the circumstances exact number of dead can not be immediately ascertained and DNA test is needed for their identification.
“Most of the bodies are beyond recognition and it is also impossible to separate the remains,” said the senior doctor mentioning that dead and injured also include women and children. “They are beyond recognition and can only be identified by DNA test,” she reiterated. It may be mentioned that a few passengers escaped unhurt as they managed to jump off the coach immediately and later the coach was overcrowded, a common practice among local public transport operators in the absence of safety regulations. They also confirmed that the vehicle itself was also not well maintained with no provision to handle any mishap, including fire extinguisher or essential first aid.
Commissioner of Karachi, Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui attributed the crash to negligence of the oil tanker driver and said petrol flames were difficult to be controlled resulting in massive loss of precious human lives. He acknowledged that rules and regulations were violated while care to ascertain capacities of drivers were also largely ignored putting public lives at serious risk. Moreover, in another road accident Sunday morning a bus carrying passengers, members of a marriage party, from Karachi to Balochistan, also met an accident, near Hub killing six and leaving around 15 injured, provided with medical care at a nearby facility.
Medico Legal Department of Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre has asked the immediate family members of Saturday’s National Highway accident victims to provide with their blood samples so as to help in identification of the charred bodies. Deputy Executive Director of the hospital, Dr Seemien Jamali talking to APP said that sample collection of each of the 59 charred body is also in process for providing them to police. “Since normally required blood sample is simply not possible with these badly mutilated bodies therefore we have to collect parts as essential samples,” she said in reply to a question. Dr Seemien Jamali said the exercise would be completed by Sunday evening and these would be handed to the police authorities to be despatched to National Forensic Laboratory Centre, Islamabad and ascertain exact identity of those dead, easing the important legal formalities, including handing over of bodies to their respective families. In reply to a question, she said JPMC doctors and nurses serving at its medico legal department are also engaged in collecting blood samples from bereaved family members and those claiming to be the legal heirs of the dead for further facilitation of the process.
Dr Jamali said that bodies would be placed at Edhi Welfare Trust’s mortuary till all legal formalities are completed and these are collected by their respective heirs. To another query, Dr Jamali said at the moment even the gender of these bodies could not be ascertained.
Initial reports said the tanker was travelling on the wrong side of the road along a dilapidated stretch of highway, police said. It was the second crash involving major loss of life in Sindh province in less than three months. Authorities transferred the remains to a local morgue after taking samples for DNA testing in order to identify them. Doctor Semi Jamali at Karachi’s Jinnah hospital said another four passengers with minor injuries have been discharged.
