At least one passenger was killed and 14 were injured on Friday after a van plunged into a ravine in the Bathrat village of Gilgit-Baltistan’s Ghizer district, rescue officials said.

Rescue 1122 Rescue and Safety Officer (Ghizer) Raja Ajmal Nazeer confirmed the casualties, adding that three of the injured were in critical condition.

Among those three, one was shifted to the Gilgit Hospital while the other two were referred to the Gupis Hospital.

Nazeer further said that three others were shifted to the Ghizer district headquarters hospital while the rest of the injured were sent home after providing them with first aid.

Stating that there were a total of 15 passengers in the van, he said that rescue teams had been deployed to the site of the incident.

The rescue official added that communication was hindered due to the lack of proper infrastructure there.

Today’s accident comes almost a week after six people were killed and 17 were injured when a bus carrying tourists fell into a ravine on the Karakoram Highway near the Thalichi area in GB’s Diamer district.

In another incident the same week, four people were killed and one sustained critical injuries when a Gilgit-bound car plunged into a deep ravine in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lower Kohistan district.

Earlier this month, the Mansehra administration had stopped people from travelling between KP and GB via the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road at night “for the protection of travellers from monsoon rains”.

Ramshackle highways, lax safety measures and reckless driving contribute to Pakistan’s dire road safety record.

Passenger buses are frequently crammed to capacity and seatbelts are not commonly worn or simply non-existent, meaning high death tolls from single-vehicle accidents are common.

According to World Health Organisation estimates, more than 27,000 people were killed on Pakistan’s roads in 2018.