Moscow: Russian authorities say 10 people were killed in a road accident overnight when their vehicle veered into the path of an oncoming truck in the country's south.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said in a statement today that a mini-van and the truck collided shortly after midnight yesterday on a highway in the Stavropol region, killing 10 people in the van.
The NTV channel quoted Alexei Safarov, the acting traffic police chief for the Stavropol region, as saying that the nine passengers and their driver were travelling to a wedding party in a neighbouring village. He said the driver had either fallen ill or asleep, when he swerved into the oncoming lane.
Russia has a dismal record of road safety caused by motorists' carelessness, low safety standards and poor road quality.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, September 16, 2012, 21:47