The car went out of control near Sabzazar Metro Station, hit a road divider, overturned and crashed into a wall, according to rescue officials. Rescue 1122 teams responded to the incident, extinguished the fire and shifted the bodies to Nishtar Hospital, officials said.
The deceased were identified as Muhammad Yasir, 22; Muhammad Muzammil, 23; Ramazan, 28; Wahab; and Kasho Khakhi. All five were from Shujaabad tehsil in Multan district.
Multan City Police Officer (CPO) Akhtar Farooq also reached the scene with a heavy police contingent after receiving information about the accident and reviewed the situation.
The bodies were later handed over to the families and taken to their native areas in Shujaabad. The deceased belonged to Multani Gate, Railway Station, Khakhi Banjani and Basti Khoja areas.
Rescue officials said several similar accidents caused by overspeeding had previously occurred on major roads in Multan, including Bosan Road, Multan Avenue and Multan Public School Road, resulting in numerous injuries and deaths.
The accident came amid a series of fatal road crashes across the country. On October 16, eight people were killed and eight injured in two separate accidents in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). Six people died when a passenger van overturned in Buner, while two children were killed after being run over by a truck near Tarnab Road in Charsadda.
The same day, three members of a family, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed when a 22-wheeler trailer loaded with cement crushed their car at a traffic signal in Lahore’s Garhi Shahu area. According to Rescue 1122, the car’s occupants became trapped inside the wreckage. The FIR alleged that the trailer driver had been driving recklessly.
On October 13, four people, including a woman, were killed and five others injured when a van collided with a truck on the Quetta-Karachi National Highway near Badrang in Mastung district. The van was travelling from Quetta to Kalat when the collision occurred.
A school van carrying 12 children from two private schools fell into a ravine and caught fire on Sign Road in Masiari, Murree, on September 29, injuring 11 children. Police said the van’s brakes had failed, while four children with serious burns were shifted to hospitals in Rawalpindi. An 11-year-old girl later died at Holy Family Hospital, while two other children remained in critical condition. Following the incident, Murree traffic police made fire extinguishers in school vehicles mandatory and ordered regular inspections to enforce safety requirements and prevent overloading and speeding.
Earlier, on August 30, four people were killed and seven injured when a passenger van collided with a dumper near Tunnel No 3 on the Swat Motorway in Lower Dir district. A motorway police spokesperson attributed the crash to the negligence and carelessness of the van driver.
In July, at least 40 people were killed and eight injured when a passenger coach travelling from Quetta to Peshawar plunged into a ravine in the Danasar area of the Sherani-Zhob Highway, near the Balochistan-K-P border. The difficult mountainous terrain complicated rescue efforts.
Then, in June, at least 10 people, including five children, were killed and 13 injured when a passenger van carrying a family from Multan to Murree plunged into a drainage channel and caught fire near Khajut on the Rawalpindi–Murree Expressway. Motorway Police said the van had lost control while negotiating a bend, while a subsequent investigation suspected negligence and careless driving by the driver.