Two trucks collided in northeastern Dominican Republican, killing at least 16 people and injuring another 12, Dominican authorities said today.
The dead included a 13-year-old boy and a woman who was eight months pregnant.
Diego Pesqueira, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transport Authority in the Caribbean country, said the accident occurred yesterday night on the highway between the communities of Sanchez and Nagua, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) northeast of the capital, Santo Domingo.
The two vehicles slammed into each other front on. One truck was returning from a religious event with about 30 people in the back, including children.
The cause of the accident is under investigation.
A 2015 student by the World Health Organization showed that the Dominican Republic has the highest mortality rate for traffic accidents in the Western Hemisphere with 29.3 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
