Fatal mishap: Bus crash leaves 11 dead

29 more passengers injured as bus falls down ravine

QUETTA: Eleven passengers were killed and 29 suffered injuries after a bus travelling to Karachi from Quetta fell down a ravine near Khuzdar on Monday. The accident was said to be caused by speeding.

The passenger coach was negotiating a turn when it overturned in the Saman area near Wadh some 40 kilometres away from Khuzdar city.

Assistant Commissioner Shabbir Ahmed Badini said the bus was travelling well over the speed limit when it tried to take a turn and went down the ravine, killing 11 passengers on the spot.

The victims were shifted to the Khuzdar district headquarters hospital, where an emergency was declared. Rescuers have put the death toll at 12.

The deceased were identified as Abdul Wassy from Pishin; Abdul Zahir, Mohammad Faiz, Niaz Ahmed from Khuzdar; Mehsood Khan, Sanaullah, Mohammad Imran from Karachi; Abdul Hadi from Musa Khel; Maqsood Khan from Thatta; and Mohammad Hussain from Lasbela.

Residents of Khuzdar questioned the role of the Highway Police on RCD Highway, where, they claimed, bus drivers frequently violate traffic and safety rules but escape unpunished.

The highway has witnessed several major traffic disasters in the recent past with the deadliest mishap taking place in March 2014 when a collision between two passenger buses and a petrol tanker killed 35 people near Hub, with many of the victims being burned to death.

Another 11 people were killed and more than two dozen suffered injuries on October 22, 2014 when a passenger coach collided with a truck in Balochistan’s Lasbela district.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2016.