CAIRO, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- At least 12 people were killed and 27 others wounded on Sunday in a traffic crash in eastern Egypt, an Egyptian health official said.
The passenger bus of a private company collided with a trailer truck on a highway in Ras Ghareb city of the Red Sea Governorate, Ismail El-Araby, the undersecretary of the health office of the Red Sea Governorate, told Xinhua.
Thirty ambulances were sent to the accident scene, and the wounded were transferred to hospitals in Ras Ghareb city and Hurghada city, while the dead bodies were taken to a nearby morgue, he said.
Some of the injuries are serious, including skull fractures and brain hemorrhages, he added.
Traffic accidents claim thousands of lives in the most populous Arab country every year. Most of the accidents were caused by speeding, negligence of traffic rules and laws, and poor maintenance of roads.
Over the past few years, Egypt has been upgrading its road network by building new roads and bridges and repairing old ones to ease traffic and reduce relevant accidents. ■