18 people die in separate traffic accidents in Afghanistan

KABUL – At least 18 people were killed and around 80 others wounded in two separate highway traffic accidents in western Afghanistan, provincial officials said on Sunday.

Mohammad Naser Mehri, spokesman for the provincial governor in Farah province, said a bus hit a fuel tanker on the main highway, killing 14 people and wounding more than 40. The bus was on its way from western Herat toward the capital, Kabul, when the accident took place, Mehri said.

“Around a dozen of the wounded are in critical condition,” Mehri said.

Meanwhile late Saturday evening, four people were killed when another bus overturned in neighbouring Nimroz province, said Ahmad Arab, spokesman for the provincial governor in Nimroz.

Arab added that 36 others were wounded in that accident and blamed the bus driver for driving too fast and causing the vehicle to flip over.

Traffic accidents are not unusual in Afghanistan; annually hundreds of people die in traffic accidents on highways across the country — mostly as the result of unpaved roads and careless drivers.