Passenger Coach Crash on Swat Motorway Leaves 16 Dead, 7 Injured

MARDAN: A passenger coach traveling toward Swat collided with a stationary bus on the Swat Motorway in the Khoro Kotay Saeedabad area on Monday, resulting in at least 16 fatalities and seven injuries, according to Rescue 1122 officials.

Syyed Abbas Shah, Public Relations Officer for Rescue 1122, confirmed the casualty figures. Motorway police reported that the passenger coach struck the parked bus after the latter had pulled over due to mechanical failure.

Emergency responders from motorway police, Rescue 1122, and local volunteers rushed to the scene and transported the deceased and injured to Mardan Medical Complex Hospital. Authorities have not yet identified the victims, though most were from Dir and Bajaur and were returning home for the Eid holidays.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information and Public Relations Shafi Jan expressed condolences over the tragedy, noting that medical teams are providing optimal care to the injured.

Road accidents remain frequent across Pakistani highways and motorways, typically stemming from excessive speed, driver fatigue, inadequate vehicle maintenance, and challenging road conditions. Earlier this month, a passenger van carrying a wedding party plunged into a ravine in Swat’s Charbagh tehsil, killing five and injuring ten. On April 6, nine people sustained injuries when a passenger van lost control near Peshawar’s Matani Bypass. That same week, a passenger bus overturned on the M-3 motorway near Nankana in Punjab, claiming three lives and injuring 26 others. In a separate incident on March 31, a motorway police inspector was fatally struck by a truck while assisting at a traffic accident site near the Hazara Motorway in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

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