ST. PETERSBURG, January 1. /TASS/. Four people, including two children, died on Thursday in a road accident in the Leningrad Region surrounding the city of St. Petersburg, three were injured, the regional traffic police department reported.
The accident occurred in the evening on the 438th kilometer of the Vologda-Novaya Ladoga highway. An Opel and a Volkswagen Tiguan collided.
Two men and two children who were riding inside the Opel died. A woman and a child are in serious condition after receiving injuries. In the Volkswagen, a woman received injuries of medium severity.
Some 30,000 people are annually killed in car accidents in Russia. The most widespread reasons for the accidents are a poor condition of roads as well as violations of traffic regulations: drunk driving, illegally crossing into the oncoming lane and running red lights.
Laws have been adopted recently to introduce tougher responsibility for the most serious violations of traffic regulations.