A road accident on a Russian highway killed 11 people Friday in one of the country's worst auto crashes in years, according to dpa. The collision took place in the early morning hours on a rural highway to the south of the capital, Moscow, after a passenger bus left its lane and struck a Kamaz lorry heading in the opposite direction, police said. Thirteen people aboard the Germany-made Neoplan 116 bus reportedly survived the crash, of whom four were hospitalized. Reports conflicted on the total number of people in the bus. It was not clear whether the lorry driver suffered injuries. The victims were mostly from the central Russian city of Tambov and had been travelling to Moscow on business, according to news reports. Police blamed the crash on bus driver error, probably caused by lack of sleep. "The cause of this accident, without question, was human error," said Sergei Sergeev, a Moscow police spokesman. "This took place at the time of day when the desire to sleep is the greatest." Highway accidents in the former Soviet Union are most common along two-lane roads without dividers.
