Toll of Easter crashes up to 42
As the steady flow of Athenians returning from their Easter vacations continued yesterday, authorities provided revised figures for the number of people killed on the roads in the last 10 days which took the total death toll to 42. Over 500 car crashes since the Saturday before Easter Sunday resulted in 85 people being seriously injured and 608 escaping with minor injuries, the Public Order Ministry said. Only one of the fatal accidents took place on a national road. The number of people killed in accidents this Easter is slightly lower than last year, when the death toll reached 71, but a true comparison with the 2004 figures will only be possible when the Easter period officially ends on Saturday. In fact, traffic police expect cars to keep streaming back into Athens until the weekend and said they will keep up their heightened presence on national roads until then. At one point yesterday, the queues of traffic heading toward the capital were 8 kilometers long at Kakia Skala on the Athens to Corinth highway.
