On highway between Kabul and Herat a bus collided with the wreckage of a truck previously blasted in Taliban’s attack on Friday, April 26, killing 45 people aboard the bus in a fiery crash. The battered oil tanker had been left at the middle of a narrow road near the border of Kandahar and Helmand Provinces after insurgents attacked it.
The Provincial police chief of Kandahar said to reporters that after the smash of the bus with the truck it turned into flames. However, police, soldiers and ambulances near rushed to save passengers but none survived the incident and many burned beyond recognition.
Mohammad Habib, one of the survivors cried, saying: "I don't care about my belongings and money that were burned inside the bus, but please help me find my brother, dead or alive," he told AP Television
News.
As mentioned the bus collided with a wreckage of truck blasted by Taliban. However, accidents are common across the country but the highway of Kabul-Herat which passes through Ghazni, Kandahar and
Helmand provinces is no doubt a deadly road. It is insecure and it is rare that a caravan makes its way save between the above mentioned provinces.
Foreign and Afghan military and police vehicles are ambushed and attacked almost on routine bases. After traveling between these provinces, it becomes clear how volatile the road is. NATO cargos are escorted with hundreds of soldiers who travel miles away before the caravan and ensure that road is safe and then call for the transportation of cargos.
Meanwhile putting a glimpse to both side of the road, it can be understood how the situation is tense. Both sides of the road are filled with wreckage of different types of vehicles ambushed by militants. The road is spotted black due to burned vehicles whether due to bomb explosion or mortar firings. It is a very normal to see even the wreckage of cars on the road, blasted just hours or minutes ago.
In addition, the bomb blasts which leave generally huge ditches are another pitfall for accident. Drivers are unable to exactly distinguish such ditches and it is highly possible that they fail to control the vehicle with such high speed.
Such problems have made the highway too dangerous and prone to accidents which brings about horrible casualties as occurred on last Friday. However, there is an alternative for linking Kabul with bordering province Herat through central provinces which are highly safe and secure, yet the government avoids doing so.