Four commuters were killed and six others injured when a truck collided head-on with a high-speed passenger vehicle on the Hairatan dual carriageway in northern Afghanistan’s Balkh province, provincial police said.
The crash occurred on the highway linking Kabul to Balkh province, one of the country’s busier arterial roads connecting the capital to the north. Four passengers died at the scene, while six others were injured, according to a statement from the provincial police office.
Preliminary investigations pointed to reckless driving and non-compliance with traffic regulations as the primary causes of the crash, police said. No further details were given on the identities of the victims or the extent of the injuries.
The accident adds to what has become a persistent pattern on Afghanistan’s roads. Road accidents remain among the country’s leading causes of death, driven by a combination of reckless and speeding drivers, overcrowded vehicles, poorly maintained highways, and weak traffic enforcement infrastructure nationwide.
Balkh province in particular has recorded a string of similar incidents in recent months. In July, a collision between two passenger vehicles in provincial capital Mazar-i-Sharif left one person dead and another injured, while a separate crash on the Khost-Gardez highway the same day killed two more. Afghanistan has also seen far deadlier incidents on its highways in the past year, including a bus crash in Herat province in August 2025 that killed at least 79 people, mostly deportees recently returned from Iran.
Authorities have repeatedly urged drivers to comply with traffic regulations and exercise caution on the country’s highways, but with limited enforcement capacity and aging road infrastructure, fatal collisions continue to be reported on a near-weekly basis across Afghan provinces.