JEDDAH, 6 August 2006 — Three Civil Defense teams struggled for hours late Friday night on the Jeddah-Laith road to extricate bodies from a massive road accident involving a heavily loades van that collided with a car carrying five people, press reports said yesterday.

At least 21 people died in the two-vehicle accident, including all five passengers in the car, and several others were injured.

According to eyewitnesses quoted by Al-Madinah newspaper, the accident occurred near the town of Al-Ghala, approximately 25 kilometers north of Laith.

According to the daily Al-Riyadh, the crash occurred when the van carrying 14 Yemenis and two Saudis tried to dodge a security checkpoint by driving around it and collided with the car carrying five passengers — two Saudis, two Sudanese and an Egyptian.

The Al-Madinah report said one of the front tires of the van blew out causing the vehicle to swerve into oncoming traffic.

Hospital sources said six survivors of the crash were Yemenis, three of them in critical condition.

Nine of the dead passengers were identified as Hadi Hassan Al-Shahari, Othman Eisa Al-Farasani, Hussein Muhammad Gharamah, Muhammad Saleh Ahmad, Munir Abdullah Hassan, Yasin Hassan Maadhab, Abdullah Ali, Jamal Yusuf Abdul Ghani and Abdullah Daifullah Saleh.

The injured included Muhammad Haroon Hassan, Hassan Ali Saeed, Hassan Dhubyan Ali and Ahmad Abdul Qawi Ahmad.

The number of the dead could have been higher had there been any delay in taking the injured to hospital, said a police source.

Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s highest rates of traffic accidents, according to its transport ministry. Road deaths have exceeded 35,000 over the past decade, with more than 200,000 people injured.

According to statistics compiled by the traffic authorities one fatality occurs almost every hour on the nation’s roads.

According to a study, speeding is the main cause of accidents in the Kingdom. The list of causes continues with drivers using their lights on full beam, stopping inconsiderately to shop and failing to stop at intersections.