17 killed as Myanmar bus plunges into ravine

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar (AA) - A bus fell into a deep ravine near Myanmar’s southeastern border with Thailand on Friday, killing 17 people and injuring 22 others, according to police.

The accident occurred when the bus was trying to avoid a head-on collision with another vehicle near the border town of Myawaddy in Karen.

“Seventeen people, including the bus driver, [are] dead,” a local police officer, Ko Ko Naing, told Anadolu Agency by phone.

“Most of the passengers are Myanmar migrant workers,” he added.

It is one of the deadliest incidents along the new Asian Highway section of road linking Myanmar and Thailand since it became operational three years ago.

Traffic accidents are common in Myanmar where roads and highways are poorly built; approximately 11 people die in road accidents every day, according to the Myanmar Organization for Road Safety.

Most accidents take place on the highway linking Yangon and Mandalay -- the two biggest cities in Myanmar -- which was built under the former military junta.

According to government data, the highway saw 744 accidents -- which killed 167 people -- in 2016 alone.

With road-related fatalities at 20.3 per 100,000 people, Myanmar’s roads rank just behind Thailand as the second deadliest in Southeast Asia, according to the World Health Organization.