RIYADH: The Saudi Public Transport Company (SAPTCO) announced yesterday relatives of passengers who died in Thursday’s accident on the Riyadh-Dammam highway would receive appropriate compensation.
The accident took place about 30 km east of Riyadh when a Hofuf-bound SAPTCO bus collided with a truck entering from a shoulder lane during a blinding sandstorm.
All 20 people on board, including the Saudi driver and his assistant, burned to death as the bus caught fire after crashing into the truck.
“We regret the whole incident and convey our deepest sympathies to the bereaved families living within and outside the Kingdom,” Khaled Al-Hogail, chief executive officer of SAPTCO, told Arab News yesterday.
“Although human life is invaluable, the victims’ families will be appropriately compensated for their loss,” he said.
Al-Hogail said the volume of compensation would be decided by a court after listening to both parties involved in the accident.
He said it would take some time to complete the process. “All SAPTCO buses have third party insurance, which covers passengers,” he said.
It is estimated that relatives of the dead would receive SR100,000 in compensation for each adult and SR50,000 for each child.
Sabarullah Khan, deputy chief of mission at the Sri Lankan Embassy, said four of the five Sri Lankans who died in the accident were newly arrived construction workers.
“They came to Riyadh and were proceeding to their workplace in Hofuf,” Khan said.
He said the mission has contacted their next of kin through the Foreign Ministry in Colombo to seek permission to bury them in the Kingdom.
The fifth Sri Lankan, Mendis Appuhamy, had come to Riyadh to attend a farewell party accorded to a senior manager at his company and was returning to his workplace on the ill-fated bus.
Appuhamy had returned to the Kingdom only three weeks ago following an annual vacation in his hometown Kurunegale in Sri Lanka.
According to a list given to Arab News by SAPTCO, the victims of the crash are: Ahmed Abdullah Ali Dufairy, Ahmed Ali Abdullah, Ghalba Al-Bishi and Haya Abdullah (Saudis); Sulaiman Salim and Sabith Saleh Ali (Yemenis); Mamraj Singh, Isthaq Ahmed and Mirza Rafathullah (Indians); Meera Lebbe Tayar, Subair Mafeez, Abdul Gafoor, Mohamed Anis Mohamed Amza and Mendis Appuhamy (Sri Lankans); Mohamed Islam Khan (Pakistani); Mohamed Ibrahim (Egyptian); Ashan Roshan Ali (Bangladeshi); Mohamed Abdul Jaleel (Sudanese); and the bus driver Mohammed Yahya Al-Suhair and his assistant Saad Saud Al-Duhaim (both Saudis).
