7 killed after tire blowout sends car into canal in SW Cambodia

All seven people in a car were killed after the tire blowout sent their car off the road where it plunged into a canal in Southwestern Cambodia, the National Police reported on Wednesday.

The accident happened just before 3 p.m. local time on Tuesday on National Road 41 in Dang Tong district in the coastal province of Kampot when the Toyota Camry was traveling at a high speed.

"The car's front right tire blew out, causing the driver to lose control and his vehicle veered off the road and overturned into a canal," the police said on its website. "All seven people in the car including three females were pronounced dead in the crash."

Road traffic accidents are the leading cause of deaths and injuries in the Southeast Asian nation. In the first nine months of 2021, some 1,065 people were killed and 2,593 others injured, the police said.

The United Nations Development Program and the National Road Safety Committee re-estimated in June that road traffic accidents cost Cambodia about 466 million U.S. dollars for 2019, equivalent to 1.7 percent of the annual GDP. (ANI/Xinhua)

( With inputs from ANI )