47 killed in Togo road crash

Forty-seven people died and 15 others were were seriously injured in a collision between a truck and a commercial bus in Talo, a village 185 kilometres north of the Togolese capital Lome, the government said today.
The accident happened late last night when a 56-seat passenger bus collided frontally with the heavy truck, said a statement jointly issued by the ministers of security and transport and read on national television.
The provisional death toll was "47 dead and 15 seriously injured," the statement said, adding that "among the victims were 15 Burkinabe nationals and a Nigerian. The others were all Togolese nationals."

Fatal accidents are frequent on the highways of Togo, a small west African nation of 5.7 million people.
In February, 18 people died and 40 were injured in a road crash in Tamde, some 460 kilometres north of Lome.
The parlous state of roads, poor vehicle maintenance, overloading and speeding are some of the causes of the accidents.
Togo recorded a total of 162 road accidents in the first quarter of this year, according to official statistics.