At least 40 die in Pakistan bus crash
Islamabad, Jan 29 (EFE).- At least 40 people were killed when a passenger bus carrying diesel on the roof fell into a ravine and crashed in southern Pakistan on Sunday, said an official.
Assistant Commissioner Hamza Anjum said 44 passengers were on board the bus traveling from Quetta to Karachi when it hit a bridge safety railing in the Lasbela district of Balochistan province.
“After a sharp turn, the bus rammed into the safety railing of a bridge and fell upside down in a 50-feet deep ravine and caught fire,” Anjum told EFE.
The official said the bus was speeding at 3.30 am and was carrying diesel oil on the roof that caught fire and engulfed the coach.
He said that “almost all the bodies have burned” beyond recognition.
Authorities were taking the bodies to Karachi for DNA identification.
Four people survived the crash with injuries. The authorities have shifted them to Civil Hospital in Lasbela city.
Anjun said that the rescue work was over.
Pakistan has one of the highest traffic accident rates in the world, attributed to the poor condition of roads and vehicles and severely overcrowded public transport.
According to government data, around 30,000 people die in road accidents annually in the country.
The last major accident occurred in November 2014, when at least 54 people died after an overcrowded bus collided with a truck in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh.
In April of that year, at least 42 people were killed in southern Pakistan after a speeding bus traveling to Karachi collided with a tractor-trailer.
A speeding bus caught fire after colliding with an oil tanker near Multan in south Punjab province, killing 20 people in 2022. EFE
aa-ssk
