In a grim 24 hours, Pakistan mourned 23 lives lost in horrific road smashes across Balochistan and Punjab, where speeding in one and blinding fog in the other exposed stark safety lapses on the nation’s arteries.
Balochistan’s toll began on Makran Coastal Highway outside Gwadar. A Karachi-Jiwani passenger coach of Al Usman Transport flipped near Hud Goth, Ormara, killing nine and maiming 36. ‘Pure speeding – the driver couldn’t handle it,’ Coastal Highway SP Aslam Bangulzai declared post preliminary inquiry.
Rescue squads descended fast, channeling injured to Ormara Tehsil Hospital amid fears of worsening conditions. CM Mir Sarfraz Bugti, heartsick, mandated elite treatment and ambulance convoys for remains to hometowns.
Punjab’s nightmare followed in Sargodha’s Kot Momin Tehsil. Dense fog swallowed visibility as a mini-truck from Islamabad to Faisalabad’s funeral veered into a dry canal at Ghalapur Bangla. Fourteen of 23 passengers perished: seven on-site, seven in THQ care. Families, women, and children among them, had bypassed closed motorways.
Recovery teams worked relentlessly through the haze. The episodes demand action – from fog lamps mandates to speed governors and awareness blitzes.
Pakistan’s road fatality crisis persists, claiming innocents daily. Only systemic overhauls in enforcement, infrastructure, and driver accountability can break this deadly cycle.