Two highway crashes in southeastern Afghanistan kill 50 people and injure 76

An Afghan government spokesman says two separate highway crashes in the southeast have killed 50 people and injured 76

Two highway crashes in southeastern Afghanistan have killed a combined total of 50 people and injured 76, a government spokesman said Thursday.

One was a collision between a passenger bus and an oil tanker on the Kabul-Kandahar highway late Wednesday, said Hafiz Omar, a spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province.

The other was in a different area of the same highway, which connects the Afghan capital with the south.

“The injured have been taken to hospitals in Ghazni and authorities are in the process of handing over the bodies to families,” said Omar. Patients in a more serious condition were transferred to Kabul. Women and children are among the casualties, he added.

Traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan, mainly due to poor road conditions and driver carelessness.