Head-on collision: Road crash claims 15 lives in Mastung

29 also injured as passenger wagon crashes into bus; three security personnel among the dead

QUETTA: At least 15 people, including three security personnel, were killed and 29 others injured in a collision between a passenger wagon and a bus on the Quetta-Sibi National Highway on Saturday.

The severity of the collision was such that the wagon was crushed completely and six people, including the wagon’s driver, died on the spot.

According to the police, the wagon was carrying more passengers than its capacity – some of whom were even perched on the rooftop – and was being driven speedily as well. The driver lost control of the wagon – which was on its way to Quetta from Sibi – and collided with an oncoming bus near Dashat in Mastung district.

“The wagon literally looked like twisted scrap and we had to cut through the wreckage to be able to extract bodies and the injured that were stuck,” police officials said, adding that the collision killed six passengers from the wagon on the spot while 29 passengers in both vehicles got injured.



“Three security officials, including two Levies men and one army personnel, sitting in the passenger van were among the six who lost their lives,” said the police officials.

Rescue workers, police and Frontier Constabulary personnel rushed to the accident site and shifted the bodies and the injured to the Quetta Civil Hospital where nine more succumbed to their injuries while some remain in serious conditions.

The bus was hired by the staff from Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences and they were headed to Bolan for a picnic.

Initial investigations state speeding as the cause of the tragic accident.

The hospital was able to identify 14 of the 15 deceased as Army and Levies personnel Eid Muhammad, Shabbir Ahmed and Saeed Ahmed, wagon driver Hayat Khan, Abdul Qadir, Shahnaz, Zulfiqar Ali, Jahangir, Allah Dina, Sallar, Muhammad Farooq, Aftab Ahmed, Atiq-ur-Rehman and Gulraz.

The bodies were handed over to the families after necessary medico-legal procedures. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi took note of the accident and expressed grief over the loss of lives, while also praying for the early recovery of those injured in the accident, said a premier office statement.