Three members of a family have died and two people were injured in a road crash in Toba Tek Singh district, after they fell from a motorcycle and were run over by a tractor-trolley.
The incident took place on Saturday night on the Shorkot Cantonment-Rafiqui Airbase Road, near Chak 43GB in Pirmahal tehsil. Rescue 1122 said the crash began as a collision between a motorcycle and a motorcycle rickshaw. The family fell from their bike during the collision, and a tractor-trolley then ran them over.
Those who died were identified as Muhammad Yasin, aged 50, of Kamalia, his daughter Sahira Fatima, aged 8, and his son Muhammad Saif, aged 7. The loss of a father and two young children in a single incident has brought grief to the family and to the wider community, and it underlines once again the vulnerability of families travelling together on motorcycles.
Two other people were injured in the incident. Yasin’s wife is under treatment, as is the driver of the rickshaw. Their injuries are being treated following the crash, and the incident remains a painful reminder of how quickly a routine journey can turn into tragedy on busy roads.
Rescue 1122, the emergency service that responded to the incident, provided the account of how the crash unfolded: a collision between the bike and the rickshaw, followed by the family falling and the trolley running them over. That sequence shows how a single collision can lead to further harm when other vehicles are involved, particularly larger vehicles such as tractor-trolleys.
Road crashes involving motorcycles are a persistent concern in Pakistan, where motorcycles are a common form of family transport. Families often travel together on a single bike, which increases the risk when a crash occurs, as more than one person can be affected at once. The Toba Tek Singh incident, in which three members of one family died, illustrates that risk in its most tragic form.
The road on which the crash happened, the Shorkot Cantonment-Rafiqui Airbase Road, is a route used by a mix of traffic, including motorcycles, rickshaws and larger agricultural and goods vehicles such as tractor-trolleys. The presence of different types of vehicles travelling at different speeds on the same road can increase the danger, particularly at night when visibility is reduced.
Saturday night conditions would have added to those challenges. Night-time travel on roads shared by slow and fast vehicles requires particular care, and incidents at night can be harder for other road users to anticipate. The details released so far do not go beyond the account given by Rescue 1122, and the focus remains on the victims and those injured.
Separately, five car riders were critically wounded in another incident when a speeding vehicle overturned after a tyre burst near Randhaw Chowk on the Aminpur-Kamalpur Bypass in Faisalabad. That incident, while separate from the Toba Tek Singh crash, adds to a picture of serious road incidents reported over the same period, with multiple people critically injured in the Faisalabad overturning.
Tyre bursts are a known cause of loss of control, particularly at speed, and an overturning vehicle can cause severe injuries to those inside. The five riders in the Faisalabad incident were described as critically wounded, indicating the seriousness of their condition following the overturning.
Together, the two incidents highlight the range of dangers on the roads: collisions between smaller vehicles, the involvement of larger vehicles, and mechanical failures such as tyre bursts at speed. Each carries its own risks, and each can have devastating consequences for those involved and their families.
For the family in Toba Tek Singh, the loss is immeasurable. A father and two young children have died, while other members of the family circle are receiving treatment. The community around Kamalia and Pirmahal will feel that loss deeply, and the incident serves as a sombre reminder of the need for care and caution on the roads, particularly when families are travelling together at night.
Source: Dawn, Rescue 1122.
