Head-on collision with goods truck near Khairpur city adds to country’s appalling catalogue of mass road fatalities

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

At least 56 people including 18 children were killed when a passenger bus collided head-on with a goods truck in southern Pakistan, officials said.

The accident happened near the city of Khairpur, 300 miles (450km) north of Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province.

“The Karachi-bound passenger bus coming from north-western city of Swat went on the wrong side of the road and collided head-on with a goods container, killing 56 people,” said local police official Nasir Aftab.

He said 18 passengers were injured and those killed in the crash included 17 women and 18 children.

A senior doctor at the Khairpur civil hospital confirmed the death toll and said the condition of three of the injured was critical.

Pakistan has an appalling record of fatal traffic accidents due to poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.

The emergency services’ recovery equipment is basic and when crashes happen away from major towns, as they often do, rescue efforts can be slow, reducing injured passengers’ chances of survival.

In April a bus smashed into a tractor-trailer in a high speed collision in Sindh, killing 42 people, while in March a fiery crash between two buses and a petrol tanker left 35 dead.

The mountainous areas of Kashmir and the north are particularly prone to accidents, with drivers careering around narrow hairpin bends above deep ravines with scant regard for safety.

Three crashes in the space of 10 days in March in Kashmir and the north-west left a total of 46 people dead.