by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent
ISLAMABAD (Worthy News) – At least 40 people were killed and eight others injured early Friday after a speeding, overcrowded passenger bus plunged about 20 meters (70 feet) into a rocky ravine in southwestern Pakistan, officials said.
The privately operated bus was traveling from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, toward Peshawar when it crashed in the Dana Sar mountain range in Sherani district near the border with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, leaving the vehicle “completely destroyed,” authorities said.
Officials said the bus, designed to carry 36 passengers, was carrying 48 people after the driver reportedly picked up additional travelers whose bus had broken down, leaving the vehicle dangerously overcrowded.
Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the Balochistan government, said survivor accounts suggested the driver may have been speeding, although the exact cause of the crash remained under investigation.
SURVIVOR DESCRIBES CHAOTIC MOMENTS
One injured survivor told local media that several passengers protested after the driver stopped to pick up people from the stranded bus. The survivor said an argument followed during which one passenger allegedly grabbed the driver by the neck moments before the bus veered off the road. Police cautioned that the account has not been independently verified.
Rescue operations were slowed by the rugged mountainous terrain, with emergency teams working for hours to recover victims and transport the injured to a government hospital in Zhob, about 75 kilometers (50 miles) from the crash site. Authorities also worked to identify those killed.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari expressed condolences to the families of the victims and urged officials to ensure the injured receive the best possible medical care.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti also ordered authorities to provide urgent treatment for the injured and investigate the cause of the disaster.
DANGEROUS MOUNTAIN ROUTE
The crash again highlighted the dangers of road travel in Pakistan, where poor road conditions, overloaded vehicles, weak enforcement of traffic safety rules and reckless driving frequently contribute to deadly accidents, particularly on mountainous highways.
The route through the Koh-e-Sulaiman mountain range is regarded as one of Pakistan’s most hazardous. Many travelers continue using the highway because train services are frequently disrupted by separatist attacks, while air travel remains too expensive for many Pakistanis.
In a separate tragedy reported Friday, four people were killed, and 10 others were reported missing after a truck carrying Afghan refugees from Pakistan plunged into a river along the Kabul–Jalalabad highway in neighboring Afghanistan, officials said.
Pakistan’s latest tragedy follows several deadly crashes along the same route, including one in September that killed 11 people and another in July 2022 in which 20 people died after a passenger bus plunged into a ravine.
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