KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – At least 10 people were killed and 12 others injured in a traffic accident on the Herat-Kandahar highway in western Herat province on Sunday morning, local Taliban authorities said.
According to Yar Mohammad Sadiq, a Taliban official in Herat’s Zawul district police command, the crash occurred in Zawul district, where a 302-type passenger vehicle traveling from Herat to Kandahar collided with another passenger vehicle coming from Daykundi to Herat.
Victims were transferred to Herat Regional Hospital and Shindand Health Center. Some of the injured are in critical condition, and the number of fatalities could rise, Sadiq said.
The cause of the accident remains unclear.
This follows a similar crash earlier this month on the same highway, which killed five people and injured several others. In August, over 100 people died and many were injured in two separate accidents along the route, including Afghan nationals deported from Iran.
The Herat-Kandahar highway is considered one of Afghanistan’s deadliest routes. High speed, reckless driving, poor road conditions, and a lack of traffic rules and signs are cited as contributing factors.
Traffic accidents have risen sharply since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Official records show 1,187 accidents between March 2021 and March 2022, rising to 2,662 the following year, and at least 5,520 between March 2023 and March 2024, nearly a fivefold increase over three years.
