Pickup truck plunges into Afghan river, killing 16

Pickup truck plunges into Afghan river, killing 16

2012-03-28 19:17:21 GMT+7 (ICT)

FAIZABAD, AFGHANISTAN (BNO NEWS) -- Sixteen people were killed on Monday when a pickup truck plunged into a river in northeastern Afghanistan, police said on late Tuesday, making it the country's deadliest road accident so far this year. There were no survivors.

The accident happened when the truck lost control and plunged into a river in the Juram Khan district of Badakhshan province on late Monday evening, a spokesperson for the provincial governor's office said. The vehicle was reportedly on its way to the Khastak area.

Deputy Governor Shams Rahman Shams told the Pajhwok Afghan News agency that the accident was likely caused by careless driving on an unpaved road. The Deputy Governor said all sixteen people inside the vehicle were killed, including four women.

In mid-January, a passenger bus overturned on the Kabul-Mazar-I-Sharif highway in Balkh province, killing four people and injuring 50 others. Before that, in November 2011, fifteen people were killed when a passenger bus lost control and hit a motorcycle and two cars on the Kandahar-Herat highway in the Greshk district of Helmand province, which is located in southern Afghanistan.

According to the most recent figures released by the General Directorate of Road Care, road accidents on highways in Afghanistan killed more than 1,800 people in 2007. Many accidents in the country are blamed on the poor maintenance of roads and vehicles as well as dangerous driving.

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