Five women were killed in a traffic accident on a highway in western Attica early yesterday when their car slammed into a large truck that had stopped in the middle of the road after hitting a van.

A sixth passenger was rescued alive from the squashed vehicle, and was treated with severe injuries at the Thriasio Hospital in Elefsina, 22 kilometers (14 miles) west of Athens. The accident occurred at 5.30 a.m., half an hour after dawn, on the Athens-bound lane of the national highway from Athens to Corinth, 32 kilometers west of the capital. Police said a speeding truck hit a van while trying to overtake, and slowed to a halt at an angle, taking up a couple of lanes. Ten minutes later, during which time the trucker had failed to put on any emergency warning signs, the car bringing six waitresses working at a nightclub near Corinth home to Athens drove into the stationary lorry. The victims’ names were not made public. Police only identified them as Albanian, Byelorussian and Ukrainian nationals, aged 18-40.