JEDDAH, 11 May 2004 — Seven girls and a teacher were killed when a bus of the International Indian School, Jeddah met with a horrific accident on its way from Makkah to Jeddah yesterday. Fifteen other girls and a teacher were injured. The driver of the 30-seater bus, Habibur Rahman, two of whose daughters were among the dead, was injured and has been arrested.
The dead girls were identified as Rosana Ghafaar (Class VII), Roshmina Ghafaar (VI), Oshima M. (VII), Reshma Zakir Hussain (IX), Shireen Basheer (IX), Haifa Habibur Rahman (XI) and Harsha Habibur Rahman (II). The teacher was identified as Ruby Parveen.
Sixteen injured girls and a teacher were taken to the King Abdul Aziz Medical City.
Two girls were in ICU and a number of others underwent CAT scans. One of the girls in the ICU was later transferred to King Fahd Hospital for treatment of her facial injuries.
Six dead girls were from the state of Kerala, from Malappuram district and Thalasseri town in Kannoor district. One girl was from Tamil Nadu. The school remains closed today as a mark of respect to the dead who will be buried in Makkah after a condolence meeting at Afrah Khogeer Hall in the holy city.
The bus, a 2000 Toyota model, began its journey in Makkah with two teachers and 22 girls. Halfway along the Makkah Expressway, the bus swerved to the right and hit one of the concrete pillars supporting a hoarding, according to eyewitnesses. “Either the driver dozed off or the vehicle developed a mechanical problem,” a bystander said.
The right side of the bus was mangled beyond recognition in the crash.
“The impact was so great that the bus instantly became a tangle of twisted metal,” an eyewitness said. While some girls managed to escape from the bus, others had to be cut free of the wreck.
“It appears to be a case of human error,” Consul General Syed Akbaruddin told Arab News, dismissing initial reports circulating in the community that a burst tire caused the accident. “The vehicle is so badly damaged that it is a wonder that some passengers survived,” he said.
Parents of children involved in the accident rushed to the scene, but by then the dead and injured had been taken to various hospitals. Some parents had to go from hospital to hospital to discover where their children were admitted.
Hanan Habibur Rahman, the driver’s third daughter, who was also on the bus, is recovering in Al-Thagr Hospital. She told Arab News she did not know how the accident happened. “I was sleeping in the bus like most other girls,” she said. Girls usually sleep through the journey as they have to get up early in the morning to catch the bus and be at school, which begins classes at 7.30 a.m.
The driver, from the southern Indian city of Mangalore, had had an “excellent track record” during his 20-year employment with IISJ, the school said.
