JEDDAH, 5 July — Three people, including two Saudis and a Syrian, were killed and several others were injured in a terrible road accident in the Jouf region, press reports said yesterday.
A coach carrying 34 people, mostly Umrah pilgrims from Syria to Makkah, collided head-on with a trailer truck killing drivers of both the vehicles and a Saudi female passenger on the spot, Al-Riyadh Arabic newspaper reported.
Most of the passengers and the driver of the bus were Syrian nationals. The Saudi woman, accompanied by her three children, was returning after a visit to Syria. Her children escaped with minor injuries. The truck driver was a Saudi.
According to Hamid Al-Sherary, director of Tabarjel General Hospital, four of the injured have been transferred to the Gurayyat Hospital.
Al-Sherary said a Syrian woman, with serious injuries, was in the intensive care unit.
A red alert had been declared in all hospitals of the region as per the directives of Prince Fahd ibn Badr, deputy governor of Jouf, immediately after the accident.
Brig. Mahdi ibn Salem Al-Yami, acting police director in Tabarjel, said he suspected speeding by both the drivers along the narrow road was to blame for the accident. However, an investigation was under way to establish the cause.
In another accident on Monday, two people were killed and three others injured when the car they were traveling hit a camel which strayed on to the road.
Col. Abdullah AlDahham, director of Civil Defense in the Northern Border Province, said his officers shifted the injured to a Rafha hospital.
In Aflaj, meanwhile, a Saudi youth was admitted to hospital with stab wounds allegedly inflicted by his brother during a dispute.
