Timeline of road accidents involving American diplomats
In the past decade, four lives were lost due to reckless driving by American diplomats. Photo: File
(Dunya News) – Reckless driving by American diplomat cost a life in Islamabad on Saturday, following which the Foreign Office summoned the American Ambassador to Pakistan David Hale to lodge a formal protest on Sunday.
The incident is not the first. In the past decade, four lives were lost due to reckless driving by American diplomats.
The recent victim, 22-year-old Ateeq Baig, was on bike with his friend when an American diplomat’s vehicle hit them at a traffic signal. Baig could not sustain the injuries and died while his friend was hospitalised following serious injuries.
Despite police intervention, the diplomat, Colonel Joseph Emanuel Hall, was released. All of the previous accused had also been released under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961.
Foreign Ministry closely following investigation into the road accident involving a US diplomat which led to the tragic death of a Pakistani citizen in Islamabad.
— Dr Mohammad Faisal (@ForeignOfficePk) April 8, 2018
An accident involving a US embassy vehicle occurred in Islamabad. MOFA is looking into the matter. Investigations are being carried out.
— Dr Mohammad Faisal (@ForeignOfficePk) April 7, 2018
In July 2010, a life was lost after the regional officer of the American Embassy Force Protection Department hit a motorcyclist in the federal capital’s 7th Avenue. The same year in November, the car of an officer of the American Regional Affairs Office hit another car.
Similarly, in 2013, Administrative Assistant of the American Embassy was responsible for hitting two motorcyclists near Margalla Avenue.
For more on this, watch a report by Dunya News below.
