AL-QUWAIEYA, 27 September 2006 — Five teachers and their driver died in a road collision en route from Riyadh to their school in Al-Quwaieya, Al-Riyadh daily reported yesterday.
The teachers and driver were reduced to ashes after their van caught fire in a road accident about 15 kilometers away from the school where they worked.
Another teacher, the lone survivor of the accident, suffered critical burn injuries.
The van carrying six teachers left Riyadh early in the morning and was heading for Al-Quwaieya when it slammed on to the back of a water truck that had stopped to serve some road workers.
While the police attributed the accident to the likelihood of the van driver being asleep, they blamed the road construction company for neglecting to put a signal warning about the roadwork ahead.
Rescue workers, located about 35 kilometers away, were unable to reach the scene of the accident in time to extinguish the flames and try to rescue the passengers.
Survivor Nasiriya Mansour Al-Ali had managed to pull herself out of the burning wreckage and is recovering in a Riyadh hospital after being airlifted form the accident scene.
The remains of the dead were reduced to ash and bone. Police initially listed others as having died in the wreck because they had obtained a list of teachers that were supposed to have been in the van but weren’t.
The relatives of the dead agreed to bury the remains collectively in Al-Quwaieya.
