By Holly Stuart Hughes and Daryl Lang

Two well-known freelance photojournalists, Teru Kuwayama and Lynsey Addario, are recovering from injuries they sustained in a car accident on Saturday in Pakistan. The two were traveling from a refugee camp near Mardan, Pakistan, to the capital city of Islamabad. Their driver, Raza Khan, was killed.

Addario, who was on assignment for The New York Times, sustained a broken collarbone, scratches and bruises, according to Michele McNally, assistant managing editor for photography at Times. Addario remains in a hospital in Islamabad. 

Kuwayama, who was on assignment for Newsweek, checked out of the hospital Tuesday and is now recovering in an Islamabad guesthouse. He says he has a hematoma—usually a clot that results from broken blood vessels—in his sinuses.

Kuwayama said he was in the front seat next to the driver, not wearing a seat belt, and Addario was asleep in the back seat. “I don’t know why I wasn’t hurt more badly,” Kuwayama told PDN by phone. “I certainly wasn't looking good after the accident, but I would call myself practically unscathed.”
     
Kuwayama says he, Addario and Khan had left Islamabad at dawn on Saturday morning to get to the Jalala camp in the southern part of Pakistan, where refugees from the war-torn Swat Valley have sought shelter. After half a day of shooting photographs, they were traveling back to Islamabad when Khan fell asleep at the wheel. Kuwayama says his memory is “fuzzy” about what happened next, but recalls being picked up on the side of the road and taken by van to a nearby clinic. He and Addario were next taken to a hospital in Islamabad. 

McNally passed along message from Addario, who is with her fiancée, a Reuters correspondent based in Istanbul. Addario wrote, “I am still in the hospital, making a bit of progress. I was able to walk around in circles today—a leap from yesterday's five steps. I imagine I'll look pretty funny as a bride in the next six weeks, but hey, it's character building.”

The Times and Newsweek are both covering the cost of medical care for the photographers, according to McNally and Newsweek senior photo editor Jamie Wellford.

Khan was a driver who was often hired by Western journalists; it is not unusual for journalists to travel together. The Times is raising money for Khan's family. Melissa Bellinelli on the Times picture desk is organizing contributions.

Kuwayama says he has received visits from colleagues at Newsweek’s Islamabad bureau and the Central Asian Institute, an Islamabad-based NGO for whom he has worked in the past. Reporters Dexter Filkins of the Times and Ivan Watson of CNN are among those who have visited Addario. Photojournalist Balasz Gardi flew to Islamabad from Dubai today to stay with Kuwayma. Kuwayama said they planned to visit Addario later Wednesday.

Addario has been based in Istanbul since 2003 and covers the Middle East for the Times and other publications. She won a 2008 Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography and contributed to the New York Times staff portfolio that won a 2009 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.

Kuwayama is based in New York and has extensive experience covering Pakistan and Afghanistan. He has won numerous recognitions for his work, including a 2006 Alicia Patterson Grant.