Associated Press

DHAKA, Bangladesh » A bus crowded with passengers collided head on with a truck in northern Bangladesh on Thursday, killing at least 17 people and injuring 30 others, a police official said.

The fatalities included four children, four women and three men who died instantly and six other passengers who succumbed to their injuries at a hospital, local police chief Anisur Rahman said.

All the dead were on the bus that crashed into a truck early Thursday at Shajahanpur in Bogra district, 100 miles (176 kilometers) north of the capital, Dhaka.

The fate of the two drivers was not immediately clear, Rahman said.

Fatal road accidents are common in Bangladesh, mainly because of lax traffic rules and poor road condition.

An independent research has said up to 12,000 people die each year in road crashes in Bangladesh, a nation of 150 million people.

Earlier this month, 44 people, mostly school children, died when the truck they were riding overturned in southeastern district of Chittagong.