BRAZZAVILLE, July 17 (Reuters) - A truck driver in Congo Republic overturned his packed vehicle at high speed on Tuesday, killing 18 passengers before fleeing the scene, police said.

Police quoted one survivor, whose daughter was killed in the crash, as saying the driver was drunk and lost control of the truck on a patch of sand on the road at Louvoulou, near the central African state's main oil exporting port of Pointe Noire.

Fifteen people were killed instantly and three more died in a Pointe Noire hospital from their injuries, police said.

Crashes on Africa's treacherous roads kill tens of thousands of people each year, many of them passengers in crowded, rusting minibuses or overladen hulks of trucks piled high with merchandise and people alike due to poor transport services.

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