LAHORE: A man, his wife and their son were killed when a loaded trailer slammed into their car from behind as it waited at a traffic signal on Lahore’s Allama Iqbal Road, raising fresh questions about how heavy vehicles are policed on the city’s roads.
Muhammad Asim, his wife Huma Asim and their son Talha, residents of Shah Jamal in Ichhra, died in the crash at Garhi Shahu late on Wednesday. Closed-circuit footage shows the car halted at the signal before the trailer, travelling at speed, struck it and rode up over it, bringing traffic to a standstill.
Rescue 1122 said the car was trapped beneath the trailer, and rescuers used cutters and cranes to recover the bodies. The trailer was carrying cement, The Lahore Times reported.
Police registered a case at Garhi Shahu police station on the complaint of the couple’s surviving son, Muhammad bin Asim. The FIR says the driver was driving with extreme negligence and recklessness when he hit the car. The driver fled after the crash. Police impounded the trailer and formed teams to trace him.
Chief Traffic Officer Syed Abdul Rahim Shirazi sought a report from the City Zone SSP, ordered that all resources be used to arrest the driver and anyone else responsible, and said the crackdown on reckless drivers would be stepped up. Protecting citizens’ lives was the top priority, he said, and there would be no leniency over traffic violations.
The crash puts the city’s heavy-vehicle rules under scrutiny. Since June, trucks, trailers and tankers may move inside Lahore only between 11pm and 6:30am. Police have not said what time the collision happened, whether the trailer was within the permitted hours, whether it was overloaded, or whether its driver held a valid heavy-vehicle licence.
Enforcement has been intermittent. In early September, traffic police took action against more than 1,000 heavy and commercial vehicles, including 202 overloaded vehicles, 122 without fitness certificates and 16 drivers operating trailers or machinery without valid licences. Police have also proposed immediate licence suspension for drivers in fatal crashes.
Lahore records more than 200 road accidents on a typical day, according to Rescue 1122 data. Crashes involving heavy vehicles are among the most lethal; in September, a trailer’s collision with a tractor-trolley carrying wedding guests killed seven people in Rahim Yar Khan.
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