JEDDAH: Three Indians who died in Thursday’s bus crash on the Makkah Expressway were buried at the Ruwais graveyard on Saturday.
Abdul Kabir, 33, Abdul Kareem, 36, and Mohammed Sakeer, 25, from the Kozhikode district of Kerala state were among those killed when a Saudi Arabian Public Transport Company (SAPTCO) bus coming from Makkah rammed into a water tanker near a checkpoint entering Jeddah. The Saudi bus driver, a Pakistani and a Bangladeshi were also among the dead.
The bodies of Pakistani Abdul Ghafour Nazir, 27, and Bangladeshi Harnul Aaid Abdul Haq, 27, are still at the King Abdul Aziz Hospital morgue awaiting action from their respective consulates.
Police had confirmed five deaths on the day of the accident. The sixth, Sakeer, succumbed to his injuries later.
Of the 47 injured in the accident, three remain at the intensive care unit of Al-Thagr Hospital. They have been identified as Mohammed Haris from Kozhikode district, Mushtaq Khan, also an Indian, and a Bangladeshi. Most of the other injured, who were taken to various government hospitals in the city, have been discharged after treatment.
Majority of the passengers on the ill-fated bus were pilgrims returning from Makkah after offering prayers on 27th night of Ramadan.
Saudi Arabia was recently singled out by the World Health Organization as the record holder of the highest death toll due to traffic accidents with over 49 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
“The numbers are staggering and, with 485,000 accidents in 2008 compared to 415,000 in 2007, prove to be increasing rather than improving. The same year (2008), 6,548 people died in car accidents,” according to Safra Defensive Driving Academy, which is supporting safe driving campaigns by agencies including the traffic police, the Ministry of Education and the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“Speeding is a leading cause of car accidents and accident-related deaths in the Kingdom, and specifically during Ramadan when drivers speed to beat the fast-breaking time,” says Waheeb Linjawi, managing director and president of Saudi Cable Company Group, which is one of the corporate houses active in the campaign.
“In 2008, costs incurred due to road accidents amounted to SR23 billion, representing five percent of the Kingdom’s Gross National Product,” Linjawi said, adding that global research and statistics have revealed that the majority of traffic accident victims are youngsters in their teens or twenties.
