At least 12 dead, 19 injured in Southwest China car accidents

At least 12 people were killed and 19 injured in minutes separate traffic accidents in southwest China's Yunnan province, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday. The tragedy began when a truck rear-rammed a car at approximately 4:00 p.m. on Saturday night local time on the Shantou-Kuming highway killing three and injuring four more people. A quarter an hour later on the same highway, 11 more vehicles collided killing nine more people and injuring 17 more in a pile-up tragedy just 125 meters from the previous wreck. According to Chinese police data, some 70,000 people are killed and about 300,000 injured annually in traffic accidents across China.