Traffic accidents in Yangon in July claim 17 lives

A total 17 people were killed and 109 others injured in traffic accidents in the Yangon municipal area in July this year, the local Popular News reported Wednesday, quoting the city's traffic police authorities.

Of the 77 traffic accident cases, most were caused by the negligence of drivers, while others were due to lack of observance of traffic rules, the authorities said.

In June, 11 people died and 70 others injured in 51 traffic accident cases.

According to official statistics, in 2009, a total of 2,173 people were killed and 14,700 others were injured in 8,461 traffic accidents across the country.

The death toll and the injured were significantly up from 2008' s 153 and 1,777 respectively.

In 2009, Mandalay division is leading with the highest occurrence of accident cases of 1,655, followed by Yangon division with 1,644 cases, Bago division with 1,070 and Sagaing division with 1,008.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar police authorities are taking measures for reducing traffic accidents by cooperating with regional countries including members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) under the Global Road Safety Partnership program.

Source: Xinhua