In another brutal road safety nightmare, 41 unwitting passengers lost their lives when their bus plummeted into a ravine near Balochistan’s Lasbela yesterday. It was later discovered that the bus was speeding when it made a risky U-turn that proved to be fatal for those on board. It is estimated that an alarming 6,000 to 8,000 people die each year in accidents on Balochistan’s notorious “killer highways.” Indeed, five times more people were killed or injured in road accidents than in terrorism between 2006 and 2015. There also appears to be a consensus that these figures are a gross underestimation as most fatalities on provincial roads tend to go unreported. Just last June, 22 people fell to their death when a passenger van crashed into a ditch near Balochistan’s Qila Saifullah district. The absence of dual carriageways, poor driving discipline, and a glaring lack of police patrols on highways account for much of these accidents. Balochistan’s vast road network spans 45,000 kilometers of land; the province’s five main highways are all undivided, leading speeding vehicles to collide with each other with no hope for recovery. It must be noted that compared to the national average of a 15-meter width for major highways elsewhere in the country, major roads in Balochistan are a meager 7.5 meters wide, making it exceedingly difficult for heavier vehicles to drive safely. Most of these roads don’t have speed trackers and drivers rarely ever use the safety functions built into their vehicles such as seatbelts, putting them at a greater risk for accidents. Promises to improve road safety have made their way into mainstream political discourse but the province’s impoverished population is quickly losing hope that these promises will translate into tangible action. In the absence of a comprehensive transport policy framework, it is not surprising that Balochistan faces so many road casualties each year. The National Highway Authority must divert its resources into road funding programs that seek to rehabilitate and improve provincial roads and highways in the province, especially along the deadly Makran Coastal Highway. It is also crucial that the provincial government launch a concerted campaign to raise awareness about road safety standards and conduct regular checks to ensure that vehicles are fit to travel long distances. Without these simple measures, the province will continue to witness a dramatic surge in road-related casualties. *