YANGON, Oct 16 (NNN-MNA) – Two people were killed while 72 others were injured, in highway accidents, during the public holidays of the traditional Thadingyut Lighting Festival, according to a release from the Highway Police Force on Wednesday (today).
From Oct 10 to Oct 15, 26 highway accidents took place on Yangon-Mandalay highway.
The Thadingyut Festival, known as the Festival of Lights, is traditionally celebrated for three days and falls on the 15th of the seventh month, according to Myanmar calendar, marking end of the rainy season.
Setting the festive days as official holidays, well-known destinations and places in Myanmar were crowded with visitors from both home and abroad, and its Yangon-Mandalay highway was packed with express buses and vehicles carrying holidaymakers.
Reckless driving and over-speeding are mostly blamed for triggering accidents on the country’s busiest highway.
Opened in Dec, 2010, the 587-km highway connects Myanmar’s commercial city of Yangon and the second largest city of Mandalay.– NNN-MNA
