KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – At least seven people have been killed and one child injured in two separate traffic accidents in eastern and central Afghanistan, local Taliban authorities said on Saturday.
In Ghazni province, five people — including two women — were killed in a collision between a passenger vehicle and a cargo truck in Qarabagh district, according to Khalid Sarhadi, spokesperson for the Taliban’s provincial police command.
Sarhadi said the crash occurred on Saturday (14 February) along the Kabul–Kandahar highway, one of the country’s main transport routes. A child was also injured in the incident. Authorities attributed the accident to driver negligence.
In a separate incident in Nangarhar province, two people were killed in a traffic accident in Behsud district. The provincial police command said in a statement that the crash took place in the “Sakhi Sahib” area on Saturday and involved a motorcycle and a car. The victims were identified as the motorcycle riders. Officials did not provide further details about the cause of the accident.
Six days earlier, on 8 February, at least nine people were killed and several others injured in separate road accidents in Samangan and Nangarhar provinces. In Samangan, a collision between a truck and two passenger vehicles on the Samangan–Baghlan highway left four people dead and five injured. On the same night in Nangarhar, three separate crashes claimed five lives, including a pedestrian and a motorcyclist, while several others were wounded. Authorities did not provide detailed explanations for the causes of those accidents.
Road accidents remain a major cause of death in Afghanistan, claiming hundreds of lives each year and leaving many more injured. Poor road conditions, a lack of traffic signs, weak enforcement of driving regulations, and reckless driving are frequently cited as key contributing factors.
