Bus-truck collision kills 14 in Afghanistan

KABUL: At least 14 people were killed and dozens wounded on Sunday when a passenger bus collided with a truck in western Afghanistan, officials said, in the latest road accident in the war-torn country.

Women and children were among the casualties from the accident on the Herat-Kabul highway in remote Farah province, an area hit hard by the Taliban insurgency.

“Fourteen people were killed and 41 others were wounded,” Mohammed Naser Mehri, a spokesman for Farah’s governor, told AFP.

The wounded, some in critical condition, were rushed to local hospitals for treatment, officials said.

Afghanistan has some of the world’s most dangerous roads, often in dilapidated condition, and traffic rules are seldom enforced.

Many in the country rely on old and rickety passenger vehicles and road accidents with high casualty rates are common.

Many bus drivers are known to drive recklessly at top speed when passing through militancy prone areas in order to not get caught in insurgent activity.

In September, at least 35 people were killed when a bus collided with a fuel tanker and burst into flames in the volatile southern province of Zabul.

And in May, a head-on collision of two buses and an oil tanker left 73 people dead in eastern Ghazni province.