Five people were killed and two injured in a road accident in Ukraine Friday, a local television station reported according to dpa. The accident took place on a highway in the western Khmelnitsky region after the driver of a car failed to give way to the driver of a Mercedes minibus, Channel 5 news reported The force of the collision caused three of the minibus passengers and one of the car passengers to be ejected from the vehicles. Ambulance crews arrived on the scene within minutes. The two survivors were being treated for injuries at a Khmelnitsky hospital Friday. A combination of bad roads, a general disrespect for traffic regulations, and the recent dissolution of the national traffic police has resulted in a growing number of road accidents in Ukraine over the past month. Road fatalities have increased by 25 per cent since Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko scrapped the traffic police in July on the grounds that it was corrupt.
