JEDDAH, 2 March — Heavy rain caused the bus accident that killed eight pilgrims and injured 33 others on Thursday in northeastern Saudi Arabia, local newspaper reported yesterday.
The pilgrims, mostly Asian and Arab workers in Kuwait, were on their way back home via Madinah after the Haj.
Muhammad Al-Wakil, 28, the Egyptian driver of the bus, who escaped with minor injuries, said he was unable to control the vehicle traveling under heavy rain. He said the bus skidded off the slippery road and overturned near the Om Aljamajem checkpoint, 300 kilometers north of Riyadh.
Speaking to Al-Jazirah newspaper, Wakil refuted suggestions that the accident was caused by speeding. “It is not true. We maintained an average of 80 km/hour ever since we left Madinah,” he said.
Al-Riyadh newspaper identified the dead as Egyptians Saeed Sayyed Mutawally, Fathi Muhammad and Rishwan Najdi Muhammad, and Iranians Muhammad Alireza, Nawruz Ali Abbas, Mahdi Hasanzada and Nasir Shinwan, Bangladeshi Alauddin. Saud ibn Faleh Al-Arqat, director of Ortawiah Hospital, said all of them died soon after the accident.
The injured included Zain Al-Abidine Jamaluddin, Mahmoud Muhammad Ibrahim, Sarhan Khalifa Hasan, Ehab Abdul Monem, Ashraf Taher, Walid Ahmad Ali, Abdul Aleem Abdul Aati (all Egyptians), Wahed Hassan, Abdul Kazin Abdureza, Jabbar Ghafrani, Saeed Ali Qasim, Ghulam Abbas, Masoud Khurshidi, Ezzatullah Abdullah (all Iranians), Muhammad Alamuddin, Tarek, Ahmad Ali Sheikh, Muhammad Nasiruddin, Abdulrahman Abid Ali, Abul Qasim Zia ul-Haq, Muinuddin Ibrahim (all Bangladeshis), and Pakistani Zuhair Sherbaz.
Al-Arqat said the injured were taken to hospitals in Ortawiah, Zulfi and Majmaa. Dr. Hamad Al-Manie, director of health in Riyadh, visited the injured in the hospitals.
It was the second major road accident involving pilgrims in the Kingdom. Forty pilgrims traveling by bus from the United Arab Emirates to Makkah for the Haj were killed in a road accident in Ahsa on Feb. 13.
Meanwhile, five people died in two separate accidents in the Jizan area, press reports said yesterday. Four people were killed and five others injured in a pile-up on the Samita Al-Dagharir Road, Okaz reported. In the second accident, a Bangladeshi worker was fatally injured when his car collided with a concrete mixer truck in Arida.
