YANGON, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed with 72 others injured in the highway accidents of Myanmar during the public holidays of the traditional Thadingyut Lighting Festival, according to a release from the Highway Police Force on Wednesday.
From Oct. 10 to Oct. 15, 26 highway accidents took place on Yangon-Mandalay highway.
The Thadingyut Festival, known as the Festival of Lights, is traditionally celebrated for three days and falls on the 15th of the seventh month according to Myanmar calendar year, marking the end of the rainy season.
Setting the festive days as the official holidays, well-known destinations and places in Myanmar were crowded with visitors from both home and abroad and its Yangon-Mandalay highway was packed with express buses and vehicles carrying holidaymakers.
Reckless driving and over-speeding are mostly blamed for triggering accidents on the country's busiest highway.
Opened in December 2010, the 587 km highway connects Myanmar's commercial city of Yangon and the second largest city of Mandalay.
