45 people who were aboard a bus that collided with truck wreckage died Friday in Southern Afghanistan.
Officials say the truck's remains were the result of an attack conducted by Taliban insurgents-an old oil tanker that had been left on the road near the border of Kandahar and Helmand provinces was attacked by said insurgents just days after it was abandoned.
Just before dawn on Friday, the bus, heading down the same road, crashed into the truck and instantly burst into flames, according to provincial police chief of Kandahar, Abdul Razaq, who spoke with the Washington Post.
The bus was coming from the capital of Helmand province, with stops planned in Kandahar city and a destination of the northern capital Kabul.
When the bus caught on fire, 10 made it out alive, albeit still injured.
One survivor named Mohammad Habib, cried while he looked for his missing brother.
"I don't care about my belongings and money that were burned inside the bus," he said, in a bone-chilling scene on AP Television News. "Please help me find my brother, dead or alive. How will I face my mother without him?"
According to the Washington Post, traffic accidents are common in this area, where cars rush by everywhere, trucks rumble down roads, bicycles, pedestrians and animals whiz by. Most drive by their own rules, and roads outside major cities are often subject to bombs by the road, and robberies on the highway.
A bus and truck reportedly hit one another and also caught fire on a highway in Ghazni, an eastern province. At least 51 people died in that incident, similar to today's devastating wreckage.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
