Kallar Kahar school bus accident

Last updated

Kallar Kahar school bus accident
Details
Date27 September 2011
LocationKallar Kahar, Chakwal District, Punjab, Pakistan
Statistics
Bus School bus
Passengers100+
Deaths37 [1]
Injured~70 [1]

The Kallar Kahar school bus accident was a school bus road accident that occurred on 27 September 2011 near the town of Kallar Kahar in the Chakwal District of Punjab, Pakistan. 37 people, mostly school students, were killed in the disaster. [1]

Contents

Bus

A police spokesman for National Highways and Motorways disclosed that the bus was an old model, driven by an inexperienced driver who had never reportedly previously travelled on highways. He also acknowledged that there may have been a failure on part of the motorway authorities in properly checking the overloaded bus and remarked that an investigation was being conducted. [2] The 1981 model bus was reconditioned in 2002 and had been given a road-worthiness certificate by the vehicle examination authorities until late December 2011.

Accident

The accident involved a school bus carrying students of the Millat Grammar School (located in Millat Town, Faisalabad) who were returning to the city after a school excursion and picnic at Islamabad and Murre via Kallar Kahar and the Khewra Salt Mines (also part of the school trip). [1] [3] While travelling along the M-2 motorway, the bus skidded due to mechanical brake failure and fell into a ravine. [1]

It has been reported that although the bus had a capacity for only 70 passengers [4] it was carrying at least 110 people. Reports suggest the overloaded capacity of the bus may have caused the driver to lose full control of the vehicle and subsequently experience a brake failure. The driver apparently informed the teachers first when the brakes began to fail. The information spread panic and one teacher jumped and landed out of the bus. The vice-principal advised passengers on the bus to remain calm and be prepared to jump out. However, the bus overturned before the passengers could move. According to one student who survived the accident, most of the children were looking towards the teacher who was lying on the road when the bus overturned. [5] The children who were standing while the bus crashed experienced the heaviest casualties. [1]

News correspondents reported that the bus was travelling on one of the steepest parts of the motorway. [6] Pakistan has one of the worst records in traffic accidents and conduct, blamed on poor road infrastructure and faulty vehicles.

Victims

As many as 37 people died in the disaster and at least 70 were critically injured. [1] According to media sources, the dead civilians included thirty schoolchildren, the bus driver, six school teachers and the vice-principal of the school. [3] [7] The students were in grades six, seven, eight, nine and ten. [1]

Aftermath

Those who were injured in the incident were immediately escorted to the district headquarters hospital in Chakwal. The deadly incident immediately received national media coverage in the wake of the high casualties resulting from it. Most of the city remained closed after the district administration and authorities of Faisalabad District announced a day off for all schools, institutions and government jobs following the accident.

Concerns and questions were raised as to how an old and unfit bus was still allowed to be operational on the road and how the bus was allowed to be illegally overloaded in excess to its maximum passenger capacity. A large number of families and relatives of the affected victims soon gathered outside the school after listening to the news. [2] Some angry and infuriated people threw stones at district government officials and local parliamentarians who visited the school. [5]

It has been reported that the bus had no permit for the Islamabad route on which it was travelling; a transport spokesman said it was mandatory for vehicles to have a permit for the motorway route. [5] Sources said the motorway police had not bothered to take notice of the overloaded bus or check its documents and that the bus had entered from a small interchange where there was no staff deployment and vehicles were not checked. One motorway photographer had reportedly stopped the bus at Kallar Kahar, but allowed it to proceed after the insistence of schoolchildren present in the bus. The official was later suspended. [5]

Investigation and controversy

The federal Minister of Communications Arbab Alamgir Khan called up a three-member committee to determine and investigate the causes of the bus accident. [5] The Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif also ordered an inquiry to be conducted.

Investigators probing the accident have called for the cancellation of the school from the education registration department and have recommended a criminal case to be filed against the school administration for negligence by hiring a substandard bus. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chakwal District</span> District in Punjab, Pakistan

Chakwal District is in Pothohar Plateau of Punjab, Pakistan. It is located in the north of the Punjab province, Chakwal district is bordered by Talagang to its south, Rawalpindi to its north east, Jhelum to its east, Talagang The district was created out of parts of Jhelum and Attock in 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chakwal</span> Town in Punjab, Pakistan

Chakwal is a city in Chakwal District, in the Potohar region of Punjab, Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mulhal Mughlan</span> Village in Punjab, Pakistan

Mulhal Mughlan is a village and union council, an administrative subdivision, of Chakwal in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. It is part of Chakwal located on Sohawa Chakwal Road which leads to Talagang and Mianwali.

Khairpur is a village and union council, an administrative subdivision, of Chakwal District in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. It is part of Kalar kahar Tehsil and is also the location of the DG Khan Cement Company, which in the fiscal year ending 30 June 2007 produced 2,387,981 metric tonnes of clinker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rampe de Laffrey</span>

The rampe de Laffrey is a section of France's Route nationale 85, itself part of the route Napoléon. It connects the communes of Laffrey and Vizille in the department of Isère, about 15 kilometers southeast of Grenoble.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khairpur village, Chakwal District</span> Village and union council in Punjab Province, Pakistan

Khairpur is a village and union council, an administrative subdivision, of Chakwal District in the Punjab Province of Pakistan, located in Kahoun valley, at latitude 32 43'56.53", longitude 72 47'27.21", mid of the Salt Range at about 2600 feet elevation, with a moderate climate. After carving out of New District of Chakwal in 1985 from Jhelum and Attock, this subdivision was detached from Pind Dadan Khan Tehsil of Jhelum District and was included into Tehsil Chakwal. Now village Khairpur is a part of Kallar Kahar Tehsil, located on the road leading to Choa Saiden Shah 10 Kilometres eastward of Kallar Kahar motorway interchange.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sierre coach crash</span> 2012 deadly road accident in the Sierre Tunnel, Switzerland

The Sierre coach crash occurred on 13 March 2012 near Sierre, Switzerland, when a coach carrying school teachers and pupils crashed into a wall in the Sierre Tunnel. Of the 52 people on board, 28 were killed in the crash, including both drivers, all four teachers, and 22 of the 46 children. The other 24 pupils, all aged between 10 and 12, were injured, including three who were hospitalised with severe brain and chest injuries.

On 11 November 2014, a bus collided with a truck at the Theri Bypass, near Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan, killing 56 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wasnal</span> Village in Punjab, Pakistan

Wasnal is a village in the Kallar Kahar Tehsil of Chakwal District, in Punjab, Pakistan. It is approximately 27 kilometers away from Kallar Kahar town leading toward Sargodha highway located 6 kilometers away from Munara bypass of main road. It is bordered by Jhamra to east, Nurpur Sethi to southeast, Munara to southwest and rest of border is surrounded by landscapes and beautiful green mountains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2007 M4 motorway coach accident</span>

On 3 January 2007, a National Express Coaches Neoplan Skyliner N122/3L coach was operating on route 592 and was heading towards Aberdeen. It left Victoria Coach Station at 22:30 (GMT), carrying 65 passengers, and was due to arrive at Aberdeen Coach Park at 10:30 (GMT) on 4 January 2007. The coach was due to call en route at Heathrow Airport, Carlisle, Hamilton, Glasgow and Dundee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2004 Ingoldmells bus crash</span>

At around 17:00 BST on 11 April 2004, a double-decker bus was involved in a collision with a car and a number of pedestrians outside the Fantasy Island amusement park on Sea Lane in Ingoldmells, Lincolnshire. The collision killed five pedestrians and injured six more.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lilla, Jhelum</span> Village and union council in Punjab Province, Pakistan

Lilla (للہ) is a small city and union council of Jhelum District in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. It is part of Pind Dadan Khan Tehsil.

On 7 June 2021, before dawn, two trains collided near Daharki, in the Ghotki District of the southern province of Sindh in Pakistan, killing at least 65 people and injuring about 150 others. An express train derailed onto the opposite track, and a second express train crashed into the first roughly a minute later. About six to eight bogies were left "completely destroyed".

The events listed below are both anticipated and scheduled for the year 2023 in Pakistan.

On 29 January 2023, a bus carrying at least 43 people plunged into a ravine and caught fire in Bela Tehsil, Lasbela District, Balochistan, Pakistan. The crash initially killed 40 people and injured three, one of whom died shortly after. The two remaining survivors were in a "serious" condition.

The 2023 Kallar Kahar bus accident occurred on 19 February 2023, near Kallar Kahar, Pakistan. The accident took place when a bus carrying a wedding party from Islamabad to Lahore lost control and fell into a ravine, killing at least 14 people and injuring 64 others.

On 17 June 2023, a passenger bus traveling from Lahore to Rawalpindi overturned on M-2 Motorway near Kallar Kahar, which is about 133 km away from Islamabad. Preliminary reports from the National Highways and Motorway Police suggest that the accident was caused by brake failure.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Tragedy on Motorway: School bus crash kills 37 in Kallar Kahar". The Express Tribune. 27 September 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  2. 1 2 Hussain, Jam Sajjad (27 September 2011). "37 students killed as bus falls into ravine". The Nation (Pakistan) . Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  3. 1 2 "30 students among 37 killed as school bus crashes in Kallar Kahar". Dawn . 26 September 2011. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  4. ↑ 34 killed as school bus overturns in Pakistan, The Hindu
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Students buried, violation of rules led to fatal bus crash, Dawn
  6. ↑ Pakistan bus crash kills children in Punjab province, BBC
  7. ↑ "Dozens of students killed in Pakistan crash". Al Jazeera. 26 September 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  8. ↑ Kallar Kahar accident: Bus had been sold off as scrap
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.