MUZAFFARABAD: A head on collision between a coaster and a jeep left at least two persons dead and another 18 wounded on Tuesday, police and witnesses said.

The coaster was coming to Muzaffarabad while the jeep was on its way to Neelum Valley when the two collided on the outskirts of Patikka, some 20km northeast of Muzaffarabad, at about 2pm.

Police official Syed Wajahat Kazmi told Dawn that the coaster had exceeded speed limit on the downward slope, reportedly after its brakes failed to work, and eventually hit the jeep coming from the opposite direction.

The collision was so severe that the coaster dragged the bus several feet with it, before both vehicles overturned, with coaster on top of the jeep, he added.

He said two persons on board the coaster died in the accident as they fell from the vehicle and got crushed beneath it. Another 18 were injured, he said, adding that the serious ones among them were on board the jeep.

Fourteen of the injured were admitted in Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahayan Hospital.

The other injured were relieved after treatment from Basic Health Unit Patikka.

Only on Tuesday, four people were killed near the town of Garhi Dupatta after a taxi car they were travelling in had plunged into a ravine.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2018