At least 12 passengers lost their lives and 22 others were injured on Friday when a passenger coach and a minibus collided head-on near Zero Point in Uthal, Lasbela district, on the Quetta-Karachi Highway, police said.
Seven passengers died at the scene, while five more succumbed to their injuries in hospital. The dead include seven men and five women, according to Edhi officials. Most of the casualties were travelling in the minibus.
Police said the coach was travelling from Gwadar to Karachi when it struck the minibus near Bela. Rescue teams and Edhi ambulances reached the site soon after the crash and shifted the bodies and the injured to a nearby hospital.
Abdul Hakeem Lasi, in charge of the Edhi Centre in Bela, said around 22 injured passengers were first taken to hospital locally and were later moved to Karachi for treatment. The condition of seven of the injured was described as serious.
Friday’s crash is the second major road tragedy in the region within days. On Wednesday, 10 people were killed and 44 injured when a passenger bus overturned after hitting a road divider on the Indus Highway in Rajanpur district. Last month, two people were killed and 15 injured in a similar head-on collision between a coach and an LPG bowser near Winder on the same national highway network.
The Quetta-Karachi Highway, the main road link between Balochistan’s coast and the rest of the country, has seen a string of fatal accidents this year, with rescue officials frequently pointing to speeding and risky overtaking on the highway.
