KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – At least 14 people have been killed and 35 others injured in two separate traffic accidents in the northern and western provinces of Badakhshan and Badghis, Taliban authorities said.
In the northeastern province of Badakhshan, five people died after a vehicle plunged into a river along the road connecting the districts of Kishm and Tashkan.
Ehsanullah Kamgar, spokesperson for the Taliban police command in Badakhshan, said a Toyota 4Runner veered off the road and fell into the river on Saturday afternoon (21 February) in the Pul-e Tashkan area.
According to him, the bodies of four passengers were recovered from the water, while efforts were ongoing to locate a fifth victim. All the passengers were residents of Argo district. The cause of the incident remains unclear.
Badakhshan is a mountainous province with difficult and substandard roads, where vehicles frequently plunge into valleys and rivers or overturn.
In a separate incident, at least nine people were killed and 35 others injured after a passenger bus overturned on the Herat–Badghis highway.
The Taliban police command in Badghis said the crash occurred at around 11:00am on Sunday (22 February) in the Band-e Sabzak area, within the Sixth Security District of Qala-e Naw, the provincial capital.
According to authorities, a 303-type bus travelling from Herat to Qala-e Naw veered off the road and overturned due to what was described as driver negligence. Women and children were among the victims, and the condition of some of the injured is reported to be critical.
Traffic accidents claim hundreds of lives each year in Afghanistan and leave many more injured. Officials frequently cite reckless driving, poor road conditions and a lack of traffic signs as the main causes of such incidents.
Road crashes have surged since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Data reviewed by Etilaatroz and KabulNow indicate a fivefold rise in accidents, with 1,187 recorded between March 2021 and March 2022, rising to 2,662 the following year, and at least 5,520 between March 2023 and March 2024, a nearly 80% increase over two years. Recent reports indicate the trend has persisted, with hundreds killed and injured in recent months across multiple provinces.
