33 Killed, 24 injured in traffic accident

A bus collided with a mini-bus at Sudan's Al-Kamlin area, some 90 km south of the capital Khartoum, leaving 33 people killed and 24 others injured, Khartoum's Al- Sahafa daily reported Thursday. "The accident was due to wrong crossing by the mini-bus. All 25 passengers on the mini-bus, along with eight passengers from the bus, were killed," said Col. Mahir Mahjoub, director of the Traffic Police at Al-Kamlin area. Yousif Al-Zubair, commissioner of Al-Kamlin locality, described the accident as "shocking and regrettable." Citing the poor condition of the road, Al-Zubair called for implementing a previous proposal for transforming it into a one- way road. Sudan's traffic accident rates are among the highest in the world, mainly due to careless driving and poor infrastructure. A recent report by Sudan's Interior Ministry showed that 283 people were killed and 17,970 others injured in traffic accidents in 2012. The report noted that "wrong crossing of the road" has caused more deaths in traffic accidents than other factors. Sudan's interior ministry was working to reduce traffic accidents by installing radars to monitor highways, according to the report.