At
least 56 people, including 18 children, have been killed after a
passenger bus collided head-on with a lorry carrying goods in southern
Pakistan, officials said.
The accident happened on Tuesday near the city of Khairpur, 450km north of Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province.
“The
Karachi-bound passenger bus, which was coming from northwestern city of
Swat went on the wrong side of the road and collided head-on with a
goods container, killing 56 people,” senior local police official Nasir
Aftab told the AFP news agency.
He
said 18 passengers were injured in the accident, adding that those
killed in the crash included 17 women and 18 children. Th rest were men.
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 take some
time, 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 horrific crash between two
buses and a petrol tanker left 35 dead, with many burned alive when the
fuel ignited.
The mountainous areas
of Kashmir and the north, where drivers career around narrow hairpin
bends over deep ravines with scant regard for safety, are particularly
prone to accidents.
Three crashes in the space of 10 days in March in Kashmir and the northwest left a total of 46 people dead.
source; Agencies