President orders probe into road crash

KABUL): President Hamid Karzai on Friday ordered a thoroughgoing investigation into a deadly road crash on the Kandahar-Helmand highway.

Javed Faisal, the Kandahar governor’s spokesman, said the accident happened in the Khak Chopan area of Maiwand district. He put the toll at 45 dead and 10 wounded.

A statement from the Presidential Palace in Kabul said that Karzai was deeply shocked by the casualties resulting from the bus-oil tanker collision.

He directed the authorities concerned to probe all aspects of the accident and wished the injured speedy recovery.

The president asked private transport firms to instruct drivers to exercise extreme caution and respect traffic rules on busy highways.

According to the Helmand governor’s spokesman the truck was set on fire by the Taliban and left burning in the middle of a road. The passenger bus could not stop in time and rammed into it, Omar Zwak told a foreign news agency.

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