Three people were killed and five others injured in a road accident in Ukraine's northern Kiev region on Thursday, the National Police said Friday in a statement.

The accident occurred at 8:20 p.m. local time (GMT 1820) on the Kiev-Kharkov highway, when a speeding passenger car rammed into a minivan parked at the roadside near the traffic police checkpoint, the statement said.

The collision, in which two vehicles were badly damaged, left a 34-year-old driver and two passengers of the car dead on the spot. Another passenger of the car was seriously injured and taken to the intensive care unit of the local hospital.

The driver of the van, two of his passengers and a police officer, who stood nearby, also suffered multiple traumatic injuries and were sent for medical treatment.

An investigation was launched to determine the cause of the collision.

Since the beginning of the year, some 60,000 road accidents have occurred in Ukraine, killing more than 1,400 people and injuring about 14,800 others. 

source : xinhua