Yangon, Sep 9 (IANS): A total of 63 people were killed and 233 injured in 128 traffic accidents on Myanmar's Yangon-Mandalay highway in the first eight months of 2024, the Nay Pyi Taw Expressway, traffic police force said on Monday.

From January 1 to August 31, 2024, the dead included 43 males and 20 females, while the injured included 145 males and 88 females.

Last year, 106 recorded traffic accidents resulted in 63 fatalities and 206 injuries, an official from the Nay Pyi Taw Expressway Traffic Police Force told Xinhua news agency.

The main causes of car accidents in Myanmar are vehicle defects, human errors, and road and weather conditions. The majority of traffic accidents in the country are caused by reckless driving, he said.

To reduce traffic accidents on the highway, public awareness programmes are conducted and radar devices are used to measure the speed of vehicles along the expressway, and action is taken against speeding vehicles, he added.

Inaugurated in December 2010, the 587-km Yangon-Mandalay expressway connects the country's commercial city of Yangon and the second-largest city of Mandalay.