Eleven people, including an infant, were killed on Thursday evening when a passenger van left a mountain road in Ghizer district and plunged into the Yasin River. Police said the van was travelling from Gilgit to Yasin Valley when the driver lost control near a bridge, and rescuers worked in darkness into early Friday to recover the dead and the injured. The crash was the second in Pakistan in seven days to kill 11 people, after a bus and truck collided near Pakpattan on 5 November. Official figures showed 464 people killed on Punjab roads in October alone.
What happened on the Yasin River
The Associated Press reported that the van veered off a mountainous road on Thursday night and fell into the river, killing 11 people. Local police official Mohammad Afzal told AP that the driver lost control. Dawn reported that the van was heading from Gilgit to Yasin Valley when it went into the river near Morkah Bridge. Geo News, citing rescue officials, placed the crash near Noh Bridge, so the bridge name is not settled.
Local reports said the van, registration number NCP-247, was travelling from Gilgit to Hundur with 13 people on board, including the driver, and that it left the road at about 7.20pm. Police first reported 10 bodies recovered, including two women, and later raised the toll to 11, including an infant. The dead and the injured were residents of Yasin Valley, police said. The number of injured is not settled: AP reported three injured people, while Dawn, in its latest police account, reported two.
Vans on the Gilgit to Yasin road are the valley’s daily link to Gilgit city for work, health care and supplies, and fares rise with fuel costs that follow the dollar, so many travellers check the USD to PKR exchange rate today before a long journey.
A rescue that ran through the night
Local reports said Rescue 1122 in Ghizer was informed of the crash at about 8pm, and teams reached the scene as darkness closed in. AP reported that the search continued into early Friday and that all 11 bodies and the injured people had been taken to a nearby hospital. Geo News reported that darkness hampered the work, that a water rescue team was called from Gilgit, and that the search for anyone else aboard was still running.
The hospitals named differ. Dawn reported that injured passengers were taken to Gupis Civil Hospital, while Geo News said they were taken to a hospital in Gahkuch. Chief Minister Amjad Hussain expressed deep sorrow and directed the district administration, rescue agencies and health officials to move the injured to hospital and give them the best possible care, with no negligence in the rescue. Police said an investigation was under way, and no cause has been confirmed.
Two crashes, 22 deaths, seven days
The Ghizer crash came exactly seven days after the Pakpattan crash on 5 November, when a bus travelling from Multan to Kasur collided with an oncoming truck on Depalpur Road. Rescue 1122 said 11 people died and 33 were injured, and an emergency was declared at the District Headquarters Hospital. AP noted the Pakpattan crash in one closing line, but no major outlet has yet put the two crashes together as one counted story. Together, they killed 22 people and injured at least 35 in a single week.
A third crash fell between them. On 6 November, a bus travelling from Gilgit to Rawalpindi suffered a tyre burst and hit a dumper truck near the Havelian Interchange, killing seven people and injuring 27, according to rescue officials. Three fatal crashes in eight days point to a wider problem than one driver losing control on one bend.
The wider toll behind the headlines
The scale behind these single crashes is far larger. Rescue 1122 figures shared at its monthly Punjab review and reported by The Express Tribune showed 464 people killed and 23,543 seriously injured in 44,797 road accidents in Punjab in October alone, and nearly three quarters of those crashes involved motorcycles. AP noted that road accidents are common in Pakistan because of poor road conditions, weak enforcement of traffic laws and unsafe driving, particularly in mountainous areas.
What happens next
Police in Ghizer have not yet said what made the van leave the road, and the investigation will need to settle whether the vehicle, the road or the driving was at fault. Families in Yasin Valley are waiting for the bodies to be returned, for the injured to recover, and for answers. The crash came in a week for Pakistan which also brought security operations in which 74 militants were killed and conflicting claims after the Mastung blast. See our Pakistan national news coverage for updates.
