At least 18 people, including women and children, were killed when a passenger coach and an oil tanker crashed into one another on the Indus Highway near Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Kohat district on Saturday.

The ill-fated bus was on its way to Karachi from Buner when it collided with the tanker, which was coming from the opposite direction while heading towards Peshawar, in Lachi tehsil.

Both vehicles overturned due to the impact of the collision. According to Rescue 1122 Kohat, two people are still pinned under the tanker and a crane is being used to try and turn the tanker over to its side and pull out the trapped men, who the rescue officials suspect have died.

The rescue officials also said that the Pakistan Army's help is being sought and that army personnel are on their way to the site of the accident.

Earlier, district police officer Sohail Khalid while confirming the on-the-spot deaths of 14 people, said 34 injured passengers were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital Kohat for medical attention.

According to hospital officials, many of the injured passengers are in a critical state, with the more gravely injured taken to Peshawar for treatment.

Meanwhile, the road which had previously been blocked as rescue operations were underway has now been opened to traffic.

Police attributed the tragedy to speeding, however, an investigation into the incident has been started to determine the exact cause.

The Indus Highway reportedly poses a fair amount of danger to vehicles owing to the fact that a large section of the highway, especially from Kohat to Dera Ismail Khan, has no division in place to force vehicles to remain in their respective lanes. Resultantly, going and oncoming traffic is susceptible to collisions.

Poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving are cited as common reasons behind accidents in Pakistan. Close to 9,000 road accidents are reported to the police every year since 2011, killing over 4,500 people on average, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

Road safety expert Mohammad Shahid while speaking to the participants of Disaster Management Exhibition and Conference held in 2015 had said that traffic accidents are the leading cause of deaths among people aged between 15 and 29 in the country.

“The main reasons for road accidents include poor vehicle conditions, ignoring traffic rules and instruction marks on roads, signal breaking as well as speeding, doing wheelies, use of mobile phones while driving, wrong overtaking, use of drugs, wrong parking, overloading and bad road conditions,” he said at the time.

“80 per cent people do not follow safety precautions like fastening seat-belts or wearing helmets, which result in serious injuries.”