BURAIDAH, 21 July — Twenty-five Saudis and a Syrian were killed and 24 others were injured in a major traffic accident on the Madinah-Qassim Road on Friday as the bus in which they were traveling was involved in a head-on collision with a trailer.
The accident occurred at 10.30 p.m. on Friday when the bus carrying 49 passengers, all Saudis, was hit by the trailer. The bus, coming from Madinah, was en route to the Eastern Province city of Al-Ahsa.
"A fire that broke out aboard the bus after the collision accounted for the high casualty figure," Maj. Gen. Khaled ibn Abbas Al-Tayyeb, Qassim police director, said. "Twenty-five passengers on board the bus including women and children as well as the driver of the trailer, died in the accident," he said and blamed the accident on incorrect passing by one of the drivers.
The injured passengers, some in critical condition, were taken to hospitals in the Qassim region after the crash, according to Tayyeb. The crash occurred at Oqlat Al-Soqoor, some 250 kilometers east of Buraidah.
Dr. Nasir Al-Haddad, acting director of health in the region, told Arab News that the emergency section of his department had acted quickly to provide first aid to the injured passengers and take them to Oqla Al-Saqur Hospital, Al-Rass General Hospital, and King Fahd Specialist Hospital.
"It was difficult to identify the bodies of the victims," an informed source told Arab News. Shocked and grief-stricken relatives of the victims gathered at hospitals to identify the remains of their loved ones.
Teams from the Civil Defense, Saudi Red Crescent Society, traffic police and special forces of the Highway Security took part in the rescue operations after the accident, Tayyeb said.
Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s highest traffic accident rates. Official reports indicate that more than 35,000 people have been killed and more than 200,000 injured in traffic accidents over the past 10 years. Road accidents are responsible for an annual economic loss of more than SR7 billion.
The government organizes nationwide traffic awareness campaigns in its bid to cut down the number of accidents. These campaigns are aimed at enhancing the security awareness of the public and establish confidence between them and the security officers.
Brig. Saeed Al-Qahtani, head of the accidents division at the Jeddah Traffic Department, told Arab News that overspeeding was the main cause for accidents followed by unauthorized overtaking, running of red light, and drivers’ negligence.
Al-Qahtani said there was remarkable decrease in the number of accidents due to a series of awareness campaigns launched by the department.
