JEDDAH, 22 April 2006 — A Filipino woman was killed and 48 others were injured when a bus carrying Umrah pilgrims overturned along Sail Road on Wednesday evening, press reports said yesterday.
The accident occurred a few meters from the Meeqat Mosque in Qarn Al-Manazil as the bus drifted into a rainwater drainage canal after its driver lost control.
The driver was supposed to stop the bus at the mosque for the pilgrims to change into ihram clothes and perform prayers.
The pilgrims, mostly expatriates of different nationalities, were coming from Riyadh. There were only 10 Saudis in the bus. Police in Sail have launched a probe to determine the exact cause of the accident. Preliminary reports said the accident was caused by slippery road conditions.
Police said a number of Saudis living in the area offered their flats free of charge to accommodate the pilgrims until they got alternate transport to Makkah that arrived only the next morning.
Informed sources said injuries sustained by most passengers were of medium degree, adding that the body of the Filipino, a housemaid, had been transferred to the King Faisal Hospital morgue in Taif.
Civil defense rescue workers had rushed to the accident site as soon as they were alerted. The injured were moved to different hospitals in Red Crescent ambulance vans.
Seventeen of the injured were taken to Prince Sultan Hospital in Hawiya, nine to Prince Mansour Military Hospital and the rest to King Abdul Aziz Specialist Hospital in Taif, Al-Watan reported.
Dr. Talal Kareema, director of health in Taif, said his department had sent six medical teams, including three from private hospitals, to the site to provide first aid.
A passenger who was accompanied by his mother, wife and sister said all of them were asleep when the accident took place.
Meanwhile, four people were injured in two separate road accidents in Unaizah and Arar. In Unaizah, three people were injured as their jeep rammed into a trailer truck. In the other accident, a stolen jeep overturned in Arar city presumably because of speeding. The injured jeep driver was taken to hospital.
In yet another road accident, a Filipino and an Indian were killed in a four-truck pileup on the Laith-Jeddah highway on Thursday.
The accident occurred when a trailer truck took a wrong turn and collided head-on with a tanker coming from Jeddah, killing both the drivers. Then two other trucks speeding closely behind smashed into the tanker, which caught fire as a result. Laith police have launched an investigation.
