At least six members of a family were crushed to death in an accident between their vehicle and the Karachi-bound Green Line train on Sunday at railway crossing in Pale Jani railway station yard, 26 kilometers from Hyderabad.
According to SSP Matiari, Mohammad Amjad Shaikh, the family belonging to Jarwar community was heading towards Matiari district’s Bhitshah area from Tando Allahyar district and the occupants were planning to visit the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai.
Four of the deceased were identified as Abdul Haq, Furqan, Shamim and Guddi. The bodies were shifted to Taluka hospital. Bystanders said the deceased were traveling in an Alto car which stuck on the track due to overloading.
Green Line services train of Pakistan Railways, which was bound for Karachi, usually reaches Hyderabad railway station at 10:15am as per its scheduled arrival but following the accident it reached at 12:35pm to head for Karachi.
According to Divisional Superintendent Railway Nisar Memon, the accident occurred at one of the unmanned railway crossing points in his jurisdiction.
“On all such points, it is responsibility of the user using that passage to ensure that there is no train coming from either side. I have just verified that warning signs were present on both sides of the track,” Memon said.
He confirmed that a three member inquiry team, comprising of a divisional transportation officer, divisional engineer-II and divisional signal engineer had been constituted to probe the incident. He said at the time of fatal mishap the train’s speed was normal – 105/km.
Memon said such unmanned points were always in use of people of the area for their daily chores.
