BEIJING » A collision between a car and an overloaded bus on a central China highway killed 16 people and injured many more, a provincial government website reported Wednesday.

The mid-sized bus was carrying 35 passengers, more than its capacity, when it collided with the sedan on a highway outside Xuchang city on Tuesday night, the report on the Henan province website said.

Police found four people dead at the scene and 12 more died later, the report said. The official Xinhua News Agency said 23 people were injured.

No cause for the accident was given. But car ownership in China has soared over the past decade along with prosperity, and serious traffic accidents due to overloaded vehicles, poor safety practices and bad habits have followed.