JEDDAH, 2 February 2005 — Two Saudi men were killed in a late night traffic accident on the Makkah Expressway near the exit for the Jeddah International Airport.
On Tuesday morning about 3:35 a.m., a speeding Audi flipped over a number of times in front of Al-Farha Wedding Hall which is located on the south side of the expressway. The two men in the car died instantly.
The fire department was called to extinguish a fire which started in the car’s engine. Due to the impact of the crash, the engine was some 30 meters away from the car.
Eyewitnesses reported that the car which was traveling at a very high speed flipped over several times as a result of a blowout.
“You can’t even recognize that it’s a car; it just looks like a pile of metal,” said a young Saudi at the scene of the accident.
“Both the driver and the passenger were young Saudis. It is very sad how speed is responsible for so many deaths every year in the Kingdom,” said a police officer at the scene.
Every year more than 4,800 people are killed and over 32,000 are injured in traffic accidents on the Kingdom’s roads. Saudi Arabia’s annual financial loss amounts to more than SR21 billion from traffic accidents.
