Truck runs over, kills 7-year-old boy in Karachi’s Mehran Town

KARACHI: A seven-year-old boy was killed on Wednesday when a truck ran him over in Korangi’s Mehran Town area.

According to a statement by the traffic police, the truck driver was reversing the vehicle when he ran over the boy.

The statement said the boy died on the spot while the driver fled the scene along with the heavy vehicle. It added that the driver was a resident of the same area and had intially parked the truck outside his home.

The statement said that “carelessly driving the vehicle”, the driver killed the son of his neighbour.

The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for legal formalities.

In December, the Sindh government banned the daytime movement of heavy traffic vehicles in Karachi for two months as the city had witnessed a steep increase in traffic accidents, with many resulting from collisions with heavy vehicles such as dumper trucks and water tankers.

Earlier this month, in an effort to keep slow-moving freight vehicles from mingling with faster passenger traffic,** the city commissioner had announced that heavy transport vehicles (HTVs) would be restricted to a dedicated lane with a maximum speed limit of 30km/h.