Fiery Highway Collision In Afghanistan Kills 73: Drivers Were Trying To Avoid Taliban
There was a tragic accident on a major highway in Afghanistan when a three-vehicle collision killed 73 people with most of the victims burned beyond recognition. Although officials cited reckless driving as the cause, other sources blamed the Taliban.
Most roads in Afghanistan are in bad shape, and drivers break rarely-enforced traffic laws by speeding despite the dangerous conditions, BBC reported. The Kabul-Kandahar highway was the site of a deadly accident in 2012 that killed 50 people.
After that terrible accident, a witness said, “Drivers on this road often kill people,” The Independent reported.
But after another deadly crash Sunday, some have speculated that the drivers of two buses and a fuel tanker involved in the collision were trying to avoid the Taliban, Al Jazeera reported. However, the director of the traffic department in the Ghazni province attributed the crash to reckless driving.
The collision took place on a major highway in Afghanistan that links the capital, Kabul, to the southern city of Kandahar.
A crash involving two buses and a fuel truck in Afghanistan has killed more than 50 people https://t.co/44pwMpfsrU pic.twitter.com/xv6g2A7j5B
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) May 9, 2016
NPR reported that the fuel tanker was on the highway when it collided head-on with two buses carrying a combined total of 125 people early Sunday. The collision sparked a fire that engulfed all three vehicles, killing 73 and injuring at least 50. One of the buses reportedly overturned.
Locals helped firefighters and first responders attempt to pull survivors from the crash wreckage, finding many badly injured. Those who escaped the crash with their lives were taken to local hospitals. Those who didn’t survive were burned beyond recognition, including women and children.
On the highway, “the vehicles were completely gutted and clouds of acrid smoke shrouded the scene,” NPR noted. News agencies photographed survivors filing out of minibuses at a local medical center, many of them wrapped in bandages and showing severe burns.
Afghanistan’s ministry spokesman, Ismail Kawoosi, expects the death toll to rise.
Afghanistan bus disaster as two vehicles crash into fuel tanker killing 50 https://t.co/Kv2RLleZ0D pic.twitter.com/4gw8tcuSWL
— The Mirror (@DailyMirror) May 8, 2016
The vehicles may have been fleeing Taliban. Agence France Press noted that the highway “passes through militancy prone areas and many bus drivers are known to drive recklessly at top speeds so as not to get caught in insurgent activity.”
An Al Jazeera reporter named Qais Azimy believes the vehicles were likely all speeding to avoid Taliban attacks.
“There are Taliban checkpoints on that road. It seems like the bus drivers and the tanker driver were trying to cross the most hostile part of that road as fast as they could. It looks like the bus driver was trying to avoid any Taliban checkpoints, and the tanker driver was trying not to be ambushed by (them). They were driving quite fast. That is what caused the accident.”
A survivor identified only as Esmatullah blamed the bus driver for the highway collision, who he said was “driving too rashly.”
Afghanistan fuel tanker crash kills52 https://t.co/DjFqIf1sLI
— The Guardian (@guardian) May 8, 2016
The highway collision is a consequence ongoing tensions in Afghanistan, where the “national unity government” appears “at risk of collapse,” NPR‘s Phillip Reeves noted.
“The crises facing the Afghan government are multiple. The Afghan economy is tanking. The national currency, the afghani, has lost 20 percent against the dollar in a year. Several hundred thousand Afghans, many of whom are young and middle-class, have left for Europe in search of jobs, education and security,” he explained. “The war with the Taliban is widening. Civilian casualties are on the rise. Large parts of the landscape are outside the government’s control. Peace negotiations remain a distant dream. Corruption is rampant.”
“As you drive around Kabul, evidence of how this general instability is affecting the lives of Afghans is everywhere.”
In a first, Afghanistan executed six fighters in Kabul on the same day as the highway collision. The country has vowed to punish anyone convicted on terror charges, and the executions open a “new chapter” in the fight, Azimy noted. However, enacting the death penalty against the terror group’s fighters could stymie any efforts at a political settlement.
[Photo By Rahmatullah Nikzad / AP]
