22 dead in Pakistan after being stuck in their cars during cold temperatures

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
May 6, 2005
Messages
11,898
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
I guess we could look at the fiasco on I-95 in VA where vehicles were stuck for over 24 hours, but at least nobody died and I don't believe anyone was even injured. And this was less than 30 miles from the the capital (Islamabad).

Most of the victims died of hypothermia, officials said. Among them was an Islamabad police officer and seven other members of his family, fellow police officer Atiq Ahmed said.​
More than 4 feet (1 meter) of snow fell in the area of the Murree Hills resort overnight Friday and early Saturday, trapping thousands of cars on roadways, said Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. The snow was so severe that heavy equipment brought in to clear it initially got stuck during the night, said Umar Maqbool, assistant commissioner for the town of Murree. Temperatures fell to minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit).​
Officials called in paramilitary troops and a special military mountain unit to help. By late Saturday, thousands of vehicles had been pulled from the snow but more than a thousand were still stuck, Ahmed said.​
Most roads leading to the area’s resorts were largely cleared of snow by late Saturday, and military troops were working to clear the rest, Maqbool said. The military also converted army-run schools into relief camps where they provided shelter and food for the tourists who had been rescued.​

 
I looked up where they were going. It's not a ski town per se, but it looks a lot like an alpine village and I'm sure that a lot of these families were taking their kids to play in the snow.

2770916_orig.jpg
 
I'm going to speculate nobody was dressed for sub-zero conditions & nobody departed with a full tank of fuel & some reserve.
Drive into elevations, or even into any winter conditions like that, learn a lesson or become one.
Those cheesy foil space blankets aren't so cheesy at 30 degrees F.
 
I had a new colleague from South Africa. He used to drive long distances in prairie winters but had no concept of winter survival preparations.

So I sat him down and gave him a short course on survival if trapped on the road by a blizzard. It happens. You should be able to survive for a couple of days at least. You never let your fuel tank get below half. You ration the fuel to warm the vehicle every few hours. You make sure the exhaust doesn't get blocked by snow. You bring along warm clothes (parka, hat, mitts, underwear, warm socks and boots) and a subzero sleeping bag. You carry a candle or two, matches and high energy rations. And you never head off on a road you don't know or try to walk for help unless you can see a building that has smoke coming out of the chimney.
 
Pakistan has a resort town?

It's a relative term. Here's a room at the Shagrila Murree. Looks OK to me.

ostrovok-7068219-609f982c41c427d38afb8c4822044a8c40cc8936-410504.jpg


This was part of British India and was developed as a mountain resort town by the British.


This isn't winter, but it's really strange seeing all those people walking along the side of the street in a remote area.

 
I had a new colleague from South Africa. He used to drive long distances in prairie winters but had no concept of winter survival preparations.

So I sat him down and gave him a short course on survival if trapped on the road by a blizzard. It happens. You should be able to survive for a couple of days at least. You never let your fuel tank get below half. You ration the fuel to warm the vehicle every few hours. You make sure the exhaust doesn't get blocked by snow. You bring along warm clothes (parka, hat, mitts, underwear, warm socks and boots) and a subzero sleeping bag. You carry a candle or two, matches and high energy rations. And you never head off on a road you don't know or try to walk for help unless you can see a building that has smoke coming out of the chimney.

This place is less than 40 miles driving from Islamabad, but that's just driving distance asthey have a lot of switchbacks. But I guess with the elevation change it's not joke how bad it could get. I wasn't quite sure how anyone died of CO poisoning, but I guess it makes sense if the exhaust isn't blocked enough by the snow, but it's kind of hemmed in by the snow.


I've headed to Tahoe with less preparation than you would suggest, but yeah I think I would have been in bad shape if I got stuck. But I stuck to the main highways, although they got pretty nasty a few times.
 
I didn't know it got that cold in Pakistan. How sad.

It normally doesn't. They went to see the snowfall but got more than they expected. I guess they didn't dress for winter either being unfamiliar with it.

Wouldn'tr be surprised if their cars ran plain water for coolant and their coolant system froze, ultimately destroying the heaters and engines.
 
...and advocate the use of paper plates and plastic utensils.

Look, there's a big fish! Let's poison its water and fill its belly with plastic while there's still time.
'round here they implemented the bag tax years ago and banned plastic straws and Styrofoam containers, so my opportunities to kill the fish have been severely limited. I'll have to rely on commercial fisherman to do that for me.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top