48 Algerians killed in road traffic accidents in one week

Some 48 people have died and 2,047 others were injured in road accidents across the country this week, figured from the Algerian Civil Protection Unit have revealed.

The heaviest number of casualties was recorded in the province of Djelfa where seven people were killed and 46 wounded. In addition, civil protection units registered 24,855 distress calls made by citizens following traffic accidents, domestic accidents, medical evacuations and fires.

This includes calls made as a result of a fire which burned through 17 provinces last week causing one death and mass agricultural losses.

Many of the casualties in road accidents are due to reckless driving and poor road infrastructure that put drivers and their vehicles at risk.

At least 33 people were killed last year when a passenger bus collided with a semi-trailer truck in Algeria’s Laghouat province in one of 2016’s worst single traffic accidents.