JEDDAH, 4 March 2002 — Five members of a Saudi family perished as the car they were traveling collided head on with a truck on the Qasim-Madinah Road. The accident took the number of road deaths in the past three days to 16, press reports said yesterday.
The dead included a woman and her two sons and two daughters. A seven-month-old girl miraculously escaped with minor injuries, Al-Jazirah reported. According to the daily, poor visibility due to heavy rain may have caused the horrific accident. The head of the family was following them in another car, the paper said.
In Riyadh Al-Khubra, an Indian pilgrim was killed and 13 others were injured when their bus crashed into an electric post last Thursday. The Saudi driver of the bus blamed the accident on poor visibility caused by heavy rain. The bus was coming to Riyadh from Madinah.
A three-vehicle pile-up on the Jizan-Abu Arish Road killed two people and injured three others, one of them seriously.
The International Road, described by local people as a death trap, also witnessed a freak accident, which left two Saudis and two Bangladeshis dead and two women injured.
In Hafr Al-Baten, three Saudi youngsters died in an accident involving a pickup and a vegetable truck. The accident, which occurred when the Saudis tried to overtake the truck, left the truck driver seriously injured.
In Baqaa, a man was fatally injured when he was thrown out of his car that overturned after a tire burst. The man was on his way to Hail from Turbet. In yet another accident, four people were seriously injured near the Rijal Al-Mae bridge.
Meanwhile, a Bahraini family, returning home after visiting Madinah, miraculously escaped when their vehicle overturned near Majmaa Friday morning. A man, six women and two children sustained only minor injuries and were given first aid at King Khaled Hospital in Majmaa.
