CAIROscratchstudio, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least seven people were killed and 20 others injured on Sunday in a collision involving three vehicles on a highway near Helwan district, south of Cairo, Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram news website reported.

The accident began with a collision between a trailer and a pickup truck, which were then struck by a speeding passenger microbus, according to the report.

Road accidents claim thousands of lives in Egypt every year, mainly due to speeding, negligence of traffic laws, and poor road maintenance.

In recent years, Egypt has upgraded its road network to ease traffic and reduce accidents. Road accident fatalities in Egypt declined from 7,762 in 2022 to 5,861 in 2023, marking a 24.5 percent decrease, Egypt's official statistics agency CAPMAS said in a report in May.■