Once again, there is a surge in traffic accidents claiming human lives. This time around it is more tragic because the victims include young men and women, including a young man, who was to be married within a month.
First let me give you the details of these tragedies that have been reported and forgotten and did not stir either the authorities or the public at large.
The first one and most recent that was most heart-rendering occurred in Baldia Town where sixty-year-old Abdul Majeed and his thirty-year-old son Abdul Jabbar, who were both masons by profession, were heading to work on their motorcycle when a rashly driven trailer hit their motorcycle near Musharraf Colony. Incidentally, both of them were not wearing a helmet.
Both father and son fell and sustained critical injuries resulting in their death. The trailer driver fled, as usually all such drivers do. Strangely, the police took the motorcycle in custody and as we all know the red tape involved in such circumstances it will take a herculean effort by the deceased’s family to recover their motorcycle, an additional hassle after the heart rendering tragedy.
Another tragic accident occurred at Jam Sadiq Bridge Korangi Road where 49-year-old Rizwan was driving an overcrowded motorcycle comprising of his four-year-old Rohan and wife. Overcrowded and therefore having limited visibility he ran into a trailer parked in the dark.
The man and his son were killed on the spot while wife received minor injuries.
Yet another case of an overcrowded motorcycle resulting in deadly accident occurred in Federal B area. A man, his son and daughter were all on one motorcycle when a dumper truck ran over the motorcycle.
The son and daughter died and only the father survived the accident with injuries. All these different accidents indicate one thing that the authorities and specially the traffic laws enforcer miss is overcrowded motorcycles. It is not that it is not against the law to overcrowd a motorcycle though we witness this all the time but it is not for some reason enforced across the board.
The law does exist as the motor vehicle ordinance limits bikes to “Rider plus one pillion”. More than two on a motorcycle are clearly a clear violation of the law. The published E-Challan breakdowns only point out the following: “No helmets”, “seatbelt”, “speeding”, “red light”, “mobile”, “wrong way”, “lane”, and makes no mention of “triple riding”.
Also, the cameras are currently calibrated for helmets and other violations but counting passengers is not in the 8 to 10 violations being fined yet.
Let us say that one of the most fundamental features of accidents due to overcrowding on motorcycles is conveniently ignored as far as law enforcement is concerned. This not only includes entire families on one motorcycle but overloaded passengers like mechanics that carry huge machine parts that extend well beyond the range of the motorcycle, endangering not only the riders but also others coming close to their motorcycles.
Why this sudden interest in motorcycles? I was just going through some information on road accidents when I found out that 70% of daily accident victims in Karachi are motorcyclists with Malir and Keamari having the highest number of motorcycles-related fatal accidents.
Do you have any idea of the enormity of the problem we face? There are more than 3 million motorcyclists on the roads of Karachi with a total of 6.5 to 7 million registered motorcycles across Sindh.
The number of motorcycles in Karachi cannot be realistically determined but, according to unofficial figures, several hundred of thousand motorcycles are running around the city without proper registration. Caught in the camera they cannot still be prosecuted as it is impossible to trace their addresses.
Tragedies that strike the young and old riding motorcycles in the city of Karachi can be avoided both by putting a stop to careless driving by heavy-duty vehicles and also by motorcycle drivers, restricting the load on their motorcycles within reasonable limits so that they can respond to emergencies with better mobility that is not restricted by unnecessary over-loading.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
The writer is a well-known columnist