MUZAFFARABAD: At least 12 people were killed and 14 others wounded when a passenger coach plunged into a ravine in the southern Bagh district in the early hours of Sunday.

The Rawalpindi-bound coach, which had started its journey from Bagh at about 5am, met with the accident near Arja due to speeding by the driver who was himself among the dead, police said.

“As per our investigation, the driver dozed off and the vehicle went out of his control,” Riaz Abbasi, the superintendent of police (SP) in Bagh, told Dawn.

Before hitting Nullah Mahal, the vehicle struck a tree on the slope that reduced the speed of its downward flight or else the toll would have been higher, he added.

One of the injured told reporters that the vehicle was travelling at high speed because the driver had to make up for a delay of 15 minutes.

“We even asked him to reduce the speed but he downplayed our fears,” he said.

Witnesses said rescue work was carried out by Arja residents who dispatched the bodies to their native areas.

AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed announced Rs300,000 each for the families of deceased and Rs50,000 each for the injured.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2014