Five people died and eight others were injured in an M-4 motorway collision near Sahianwala Interchange on Sunday night, police and rescue officials said. The dead included a married couple travelling in the car and the driver of the coaster.
The coaster was carrying wedding guests from Narowal to Khachian, Barnala, in Faisalabad, while the car was travelling from Faisalabad towards Pindi Bhattian. The two vehicles collided near Ganna Bridge, in the Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company area, and the coaster overturned onto the car, killing five people on the spot.
Rescue 1122 teams gave first aid to the injured and shifted them to Allied Hospital in Faisalabad. Sahianwala Station House Officer Tahir Shabbir and other police officials reached the scene and helped rescue workers and local residents evacuate the injured. Police took the bodies into custody and began legal formalities.
How the M-4 motorway collision happened
The crash happened where traffic had been diverted. Repair work on the M-4 near Sahianwala Interchange had diverted traffic to one side of the motorway, so vehicles travelling in opposite directions were sharing the same carriageway. Dawn’s account of the crash says the car went out of control after a tyre burst, then collided with the coaster and a bus coming from the opposite direction.
The dead were identified as car driver Riffaqat Ali, 50, his wife Shabana, 45, Asif Zahoor, 54, his wife Musarrat Bibi, 50, and coaster driver Akhtar Ali, 50. The injured included Akbar Khan, 50, Ayub, 25, Farzana, 20, and five children aged from three to eight: Rani Bibi, Ali Hassan, Ali Asghar, Ali Ahmed and Khadija.
Two reports of the crash differ slightly on the spelling of the driver’s name and on the ages given, with Dawn naming him Rafaqat Hussain, 55, and The Express Tribune naming him Riffaqat Ali, 50. Both reports agree on the place, the vehicles, the death toll of five and the core sequence of events. The families, not the paperwork, are what matter, and the police record will settle the formal identities.
A second fatal crash on the same night
The M-4 crash was not the only fatal road incident in the Faisalabad area on Sunday night. Dawn reported that two people died in a head-on collision between a van and a motorcycle near Faisalabad Bypass Road Chowk in Jhang on the same night. The dead, Ali Abid, 28, and Hasnain Yaqoob, 27, were riding the motorcycle.
Taken together, the two crashes killed seven people in one night in one region. Motorway police said traffic on the M-4 was restored after the crash scene was cleared. No statement has yet been issued on whether the diversion layout, signage or speed management at the repair section contributed to the collision, and that question should form part of the police inquiry.
Road crashes involving wedding parties carry a particular weight in Pakistan, because a single vehicle often carries an extended family. In this case the car carried two couples, and the coaster carried guests travelling to a wedding. The injured children, some as young as three, will carry the consequences of one night’s crash for years.
What happens next
Police will complete their legal formalities and hand the bodies to families for burial. The inquiry should also answer a practical question for other drivers: how was traffic managed through the Sahianwala repair diversion, and was it safe for night traffic? Diversions that put opposing traffic on one carriageway demand clear signs, reduced speed limits and, where possible, physical separation. Drivers passing repair sections at night face low visibility and sudden lane changes, and a burst tyre leaves no room for error.
For now, the M-4 near Sahianwala is open again. The families of the five dead are burying their relatives, and eight injured people, including five children, are being treated in Faisalabad. The crash is a reminder that a repair diversion is itself a hazard, and it must be managed as carefully as the road it repairs.
Source reporting: The Express Tribune and Dawn.
Related coverage: Feature Pakistan has reported on a family road crash in Tando Adam that killed five people, a family van accident in Murree and a van accident in Neelum Valley.
