Swabi highway crash kills 17, injures six

SWABI: At least 17 people were killed and six others seriously injured when a passenger van crashed into a bus parked by the roadside near the Ismaila Interchange on the Swat Expressway in Swabi district, officials said.

According to officials of the National Highways and Motorway Police, the bus was travelling from Karachi to Buner when it developed a fault and was stopped along the roadside. A passenger van coming from Rawalpindi to Dir then struck the stationary vehicle from behind at high speed.

Officials said the impact was severe enough to completely crush the van. The dead included elderly passengers, women and children, while the injured were shifted along with the bodies to Mardan Medical Complex after rescue teams and motorway police reached the site.

Initial findings suggested the crash occurred because of negligence and carelessness by the van driver, who failed to avoid the parked bus, according to the officials. Authorities later began a formal investigation into the incident.

Officials said the identities of several victims could not be confirmed immediately after the crash. It later emerged that most of those killed and injured were from Upper Dir and Bajaur.

Rescue 1122 officials said five of the deceased were residents of the Luqman Banda area of Lower Dir, including four members of the same family. They were identified as 60-year-old Musa Muhammad, his two sons Sherbaz and Said Nawab, his grandson Abdul Rahim, and Fazal Subhan.

The accident left the affected areas in mourning as families grieved the loss of their relatives.