RIYADH, 7 September — Seven Bangladeshi workers were killed when their company’s lorry collided with a speeding petrol tanker on the busy Riyadh-Kharj Road Thursday evening.
The bodies of the victims were taken to a local hospital.
“This was indeed a major tragedy, which has shocked and saddened foreign workers here,” an eyewitness said here yesterday.
The lorry hit the petrol tanker and was hooked to it and dragged for a distance, said another eye witnesses.
Police confirmed that all seven victims were Bangladeshi nationals working for a local company. They said a case has been lodged with the New Industrial Area police station to decide faults and liabilities and settle claims.
On Thursday, a passenger was killed and the driver injured when a car broke in two after it crashed due to overspeeding on King Fahd Road in Riyadh.
Recently, eight members of a Saudi family were killed when their car hit a speeding truck. The bodies of the family were cut to pieces in the accident in which another truck and a car were also involved.
According to a study, the death toll on the roads of Riyadh is alarming, which is evident from the fact that at least one person is killed daily in Riyadh and 21 sustain injuries.
Other cities have also reported a growing number of traffic accidents, killing or maiming several people. More than 38 accidents have occurred on Al-Malik Road in Jeddah in the past three months.
More than 4,800 people were killed and 32,000 injured in traffic accidents in the Kingdom last year, according to statistics released by the traffic department.
