Water tanker crushes man, pregnant wife in Karachi

A man and his pregnant wife were killed in an accident when a water tanker hit them on Karachi’s main Sharea Faisal road on Monday, according to police and hospital officials.

Karachi Traffic Police Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Pir Mohammed Shah told media that the water tanker was on its way from Model Colony towards Sharea Faisal but did not take a left turn.

He said cemented barriers were recently erected on the spit but the driver breached them as the vehicle’s brakes failed and came on the other side of Sharea Faisal where it hit the bike-riding family.

“As a result, the couple and their newborn baby were killed,” the Traffic DIG said. He said traffic police officials present at the scene caught the errant driver and seized the tanker, handing them over to the police for investigation.

Korangi Senior Superintendent of Police Mohammed Tariq Nawaz confirmed that the full-term pregnant woman gave birth to a baby after the tragic accident but the newborn could not survive. He said the husband was reportedly taking his wife for a medical checkup to a hospital when the accident occurred.

Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed told media that Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) received the bodies of the couple and their newborn baby boy.

Dr Summaiya said the mother was badly crushed in the accident but there was not a single injury mark on her baby’s body. The deceased were identified as Abdul Qayum, 25, and Zainab, 19.

Meanwhile, the police surgeon said another man identified as Asif, 32, was killed when a heavy vehicle hit and killed him in Quaidabad with his body brought to JPMC for legal formalities.

An alarming increase was registered in road accidents in Karachi as nearly 500 people were killed while 4,879 were injured in 2024 due to a host of reasons ranging from reckless driving to construction activities, according to hospital data.

Rules restricting the movement of heavy vehicles were recently implemented in the metropolis amid rising traffic accidents involving dumpers and tankers and protests over the deaths of citizens.

Last month, the provincial government banned the entry of heavy vehicles into the city during the daytime, only allowing them to operate from 11pm to 6am.

The Sindh government has also made it mandatory for all heavy vehicles in Karachi to have a physical fitness certificate amid the rising number of traffic accidents involving dumper trucks.

Rights activists and members of civil society have said that the increasing number of fatal road accidents in the city and the poor state of traffic law enforcement are violations of human rights, which the state has failed to safeguard.