In a bid to save a pedestrian life, the driver of a van instead hit the vehicle with a tree on early Tuesday morning. As many as 12 passengers were burnt alive while several were badly wounded in the fire, which erupted after the van’s head-on collision with the tree. The sad incident took place in the Golra police precincts. “A Rawalpindi-bound Toyota Hiace bearing registration number RIR-9606 had left from Wah Cantt.
It collided with a roadside tree at 7:04 am PST when the driver, Muhammad Asif, lost control of the vehicle when he tried to save a pedestrian crossing the road”, said Motorway police spokesman Javed Chaudhry. He said the van caught fire due to short-circuiting, which caused the CNG cylinder to explode. He said the motorway policemen, rescue workers and fire brigade staff reached the scene soon after accident and moved the injured to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS). “As many as 12 people were burnt alive on the spot and their bodies were hardly recognizable. Seven people including two women were seriously injured”, he said.
