28 perish as speedy passenger coach overturns in Washuk

As many as 28 people, including women and children, died when a passenger coach heading from Turbat to Quetta met with an accident at Washuk early Wednesday morning, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

As many as 17 passengers including the driver were also injured in the horrific accident which witnesses said was caused by a tyre burst which led to the bus carrying 45 passengers to overturn due to overspeeding. The driver lost control of the vehicle which plunged into a deep ravine near Basima Town in Washuk city of Balochistan.

The rescue personnel shifted the bodies and the injured to a local hospital.

Basima Assistant Commissioner Ismail Mengal confirmed that the accident was caused by a tyre burst which led to the vehicle overturned and fell into the ravine.

Mengal said the dead and wounded were shifted to Civil Hospital where condition of six of the passengers was said to be serious.

Mengal said injured people were being shifted to Quetta after giving them first-aid and they have requested the provincial government to provide a helicopter for shifting the injured. The dead bodies were being kept in Civil Hospital for identification, the AC added.

"The driver was navigating a turn in a mountainous area when the vehicle lost control and fell into a ravine," Ismail Mengal later told a foreign news agency.

"We are still investigating the cause of the incident. It could be that the driver fell asleep or was speeding, which led to the accident," he added.

 Noor Ullah, chief doctor at Civil Hospital Basima, told AFP that 27 bodies were taken there, including three women and two children.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has "expressed deep sorrow and grief over the tragic traffic accident", his office said in a statement.

Road accidents with high fatalities are common in Pakistan, where safety measures are lax, driver training is poor and transport infrastructure often decrepit.

At least 17 pilgrims were killed and 41 injured in a crash in April as they travelled to a shrine in Balochistan's Hub district.

In January last year, 41 people were killed when their bus, which was also loaded with containers of flammable oil, careered off the road into a valley and burst into flames.

Reporter Essa Tareen