Six Asian workers were killed and 44 injured when their bus collided with a lorry on Monday south-west of the Emirati capital, the official WAM news agency reported. Police, quoted by WAM, said the bus driver apparently swerved out of his lane and crashed into the lorry on a highway near Ruwais, 250 kilometres (155 miles) from Abu Dhabi.
Twenty workers were lightly injured but the other injuries were more serious, WAM said without specifying the workers' nationalities. Reckless driving and poor knowledge of traffic rules are a major concern for authorities in the United Arab Emirates, which has been trying to reduce road casualties through tougher driving tests and stiff fines.
In Abu Dhabi alone, one of seven emirates in the UAE federation, 454 people, including 44 children, died in traffic accidents last year. Foreign workers, most of them Asians, are employed in almost every sector of the UAE economy. Many poorly educated workers, mainly from Pakistan and India, are given jobs as drivers without adequate training.