Road accidents kill 47 Cambodians during lunar New Year travel

Forty-seven people were killed in road accidents during the last four days of the Cambodian New Year holiday this year, up 9 percent from 43 deaths over the same period last year, a report from the Interior Ministry's public order department showed on Sunday.

Some 98 road accidents resulted in 47 deaths and 207 injuries from Wednesday to Saturday, in comparison to 123 accidents causing 43 deaths and 281 injuries in road crashes during last year's festival, the report said.

"Thirty-eight of the dead this year were motorists and 23 of them were not wearing a helmet at the time of accident," it said, adding that speeding and drunk driving were the main causes of the crashes.、

Road accidents are a leading cause of death in this Southeast Asian country, killing an average of six people a day. According to a government's report, road crashes killed 2,265 people in 2015, up 5 percent year-on-year.