A passenger bus traveling in southwest Pakistan sped off of a highway and plunged into a ravine on May 29, killing 28 people and injuring another 20, according to local officials.
According to local police in Baluchistan province, the bus driver suddenly lost control in the town of Washuk while traveling from the province’s second-largest city Turbat on the way to the Baluchistan capital city of Quetta, causing the bus to careen off the highway and drop to the bottom of a ravine.
Washuk government administrator Ismail Mengal said the bus driver was one of the 28 people killed in the crash. Police and rescue workers responded quickly to the accident and injured passengers were given medical treatment at the site of the crash before being transported to a nearby hospital where some of the injured remained in critical condition, according to Mengal.
Police were still trying to determine what caused the bus to crash.
Local media outlets published pictures showing the severely damaged bus lying at the bottom of the ravine.
Baluchistan Province Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said in a May 29 statement that he had ordered the injured passengers to receive the best possible medical treatment. Bugti also expressed his grief over the 29 dead.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also expressed sorrow over the deadly crash.
Road accidents are not uncommon in Pakistan where safety standards and traffic laws are rarely followed. Crashes are especially common on the more rugged roads in the country’s mountainous regions.
Just days before the bus crash, 13 family members, including three children, were killed after the passenger van they were riding in collided with a truck in the eastern Punjab city of Multan. The truck driver was arrested.
In early May another passenger bus fell into a ravine in northern Pakistan after the driver lost control of the vehicle. Twenty people were killed and another 30 were injured.
