Eighteen people were killed and 16 others injured when a van carrying migrant workers slammed into a trailer truck parked alongside a north China highway early Sunday, state press reported. The accident occurred near Zhangjiakou city in Hebei province, Xinhua news agency said. The van was carrying 34 migrant workers at the time of the accident, the report said. An initial toll of 17 deaths was updated after one of the injured died in hospital, Xinhua said. No other details of the accident were immediately available. China’s roads are among the world’s most dangerous, with traffic laws and safety widely flouted. Almost 70,000 people died in road accidents in 2009 — around 190 fatalities a day — according to police statistics.
