ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- A car accident in Ethiopia's eastern Somali regional state has left nine people dead, a local official said on Thursday.
Dekene Hussein, Somali regional state police traffic accident investigation division chief, said the car accident happened in the evening of October 18, when a passenger bus traveling from Warder city to Jijiga city overturned on the road.
He further said the car accident left 26 people injured which are being treated in Jijiga referral hospital while an eight-year-old infant in the car survived the accident without injuries.
Police are investigating the cause of the fatal car accident with a possible malfunction in the brake treated as a possible reason.
Despite having one of the lowest per capita car ownerships in the world, deadly traffic accidents in Ethiopia are fairly common with bad roads, flawed driving license issuance system and lax enforcement of road safety blamed for the high fatalities.
With a growing economy and a rising middle class, the East African nation has for the past several years also recorded an average of 11 percent growth in vehicle numbers.
