JEDDAH, 18 August — Police in Taif have arrested the truck driver who had fled from the scene after causing a major accident on the Taif-Riyadh Expressway last Tuesday. The accident killed three persons — two Arab pilgrims and a Saudi driver — when two tires which blew out from his truck smashed through the windscreen of a bus.
The bus, which was coming from Riyadh carrying 50 pilgrims, was on its way to Makkah. The bus driver, 25, had tried to avoid the tires heading in his direction. But they hit the bus’s windscreen causing the accident, which also injured 17 pilgrims, some of them seriously.
The truck driver had run away from the spot, without a trace. Police found the truck’s haul two kms away from the expressway. The driver had separated it from the cab and run away with the cab. He had also removed the number plate.
After a thorough search, police found a customs bill in the truck haul. They contacted the customs department to get details of the truck. The truck’s owner had rented it to a private firm. Police did not take long to locate the absconding driver with a group of his compatriots in Jeddah. He was then arrested in cooperation with Jeddah traffic police, Okaz reported.
The Pakistani driver first tried to justify his act but acknowledged that he had seen the tires moving toward the direction of the bus. He said he ran away from the spot thinking he would be held responsible for the accident. Investigations proved that the truck’s overload was the reason for blowout of its tires.
Most of the injured pilgrims have already left King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Taif after receiving treatment. But three are still in the intensive care unit. They are: Abdullah Hussain Juma, six years, Mohammed Humaid Mohammed, 36, an Egyptian, and Noura Mohammed Al-Turk, 50, a Saudi woman.
A passenger who escaped the accident, said he had seen the driver trying to avoid the tires.
"We then heard a bomb-like sound," he said about the tires bursting into the bus. "We recovered from that shock only at the hospital," he added.
