Two highway crashes in southeastern Afghanistan kill 50 people and injure 76

Two highway crashes in southeastern Afghanistan have killed a combined total of 50 people and injured 76, a government spokesman said Thursday.

One was a collision between a passenger bus and an oil tanker on the Kabul-Kandahar highway late Wednesday, said Hafiz Omar, a spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province.

The other was in a different area of the same highway, which connects the Afghan capital with the south.

“The injured have been taken to hospitals in Ghazni and authorities are in the process of handing over the bodies to families,” said Omar. Patients in a more serious condition were transferred to Kabul. Women and children are among the casualties, he added.

Crash survivor Abdullah Khan, who was being treated in a Ghazni hospital, said he didn’t know how many people had either died or were injured.

“I got out from the bus myself and heard the sound of moaning. There was blood everywhere. Some people had head injuries and others had hurt their legs.”

Traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan, mainly due to poor road conditions and driver carelessness.

The Associated Press