LAHORE: At least 14 people, including six children, were killed when a truck carrying about a dozen passengers fell from a bridge due to dense fog in Punjab province of Pakistan on Saturday.
The accident took place in Kot Momin, Sargodha district, some 200 kms from Lahore, in the early hours.
According to the spokesperson of Punjab Emergency Services Rescue 1122, the truck had on board 23 people, mostly of an extended family, going to attend a funeral in Faisalabad from Islamabad.
“As the motorway was closed because of heavy fog, the truck took a local route. It fell from the Galapur bridge in Kot Momin tehsil into a dry canal as the driver lost control over the vehicle because of poor visibility,” the spokesperson said.
Among the 14 dead were six children and five women while nine persons suffered injuries and are being treated at the Civil Hospital, Kot Momin.
In another incident, at least nine people were killed and 15 others injured when a passenger coach overturned on the Makran coastal highway near Gwadar in the Balochistan province early Saturday.
Coastal Highway Police Superintendent of Police (SP) Aslam Bangulzai confirmed the accident and said the passenger coach was going from Jiwani to Karachi.
“The accident took place early this morning on the Makran coastal highway as the passenger coach overturned due to over speeding,” Bangulzai said.
Dense fog has paralysed traffic on Punjab’s motorways and major roads during night hours or early morning since the start of extreme cold wave last month.
Moreover, fatal road accidents in Pakistan are not uncommon with over speeding, overworked drivers, poor license issuance control and disregard for traffic rules being among the main cases.
On December 31, at least 14 passengers were killed and 16 others injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a van on Jhang-Faisalabad road in Punjab.