JEDDAH: Five people including two Indians were killed and 47 others injured when a Saudi Arabian Public Transport Company (SAPTCO) bus rammed into a water tanker near the Jeddah checkpoint, on its way from Makkah, early on Thursday morning. Jeddah Traffic Director Col. Muhammad Al-Qahtani said the bus’ Saudi driver was among the dead.
Al-Qahtani said the bus was carrying pilgrims of Arab and Asian nationalities. He identified the four dead passengers as two Indians (Abdul Kabir, 33, and Abdul Kareem, 36), a Pakistani (Abdul Ghafour Nazir, 27) and a Bangladeshi (Harnul Aaid Abdul Haq, 27).
The victims were taken to King Abdul Aziz Hospital at Mahjer, Ministry of Health’s Al-Thagr and King Fahd hospitals and the National Guard Hospital, said Dr. Sami Badawood, health affairs director in Jeddah.
The passengers, belonging to different nationalities, were mostly pilgrims returning after offering Ramadan 27th night prayers in Makkah.
According to him, the dead were taken to the morgue at King Abdul Aziz Hospital in Mahjer. The 47 injured were sent to different hospitals, he added. Badawood said that as soon as his department learned about the accident, it sent an emergency team to the spot.
An official at the Consulate General of India said some community welfare volunteers rushed to the site soon after they learned of the accident. The volunteers said the dead Indians were from the Kozhikode district of the southern state of Kerala.
“While I was driving with a co-passenger early in the morning from Makkah to Jeddah, I was alerted in advance that a thick fog was ahead. As we were a few kilometers from Jeddah, the fog hit us with almost zero visibility,” Muhammad Darwish, an Egyptian office executive, told Arab News.
“The reason for the accident was the close proximity of vehicles on the highway,” Al-Qahtani said. “Safety rules dictate that there should be enough distance between vehicles while driving in order for drivers to react.” He urged drivers to be careful while driving on the Jeddah-Makkah Expressway during this period of heavy traffic. “They should not speed in order to avoid accidents,” he added.
Saudi Arabia has one of the highest traffic accident rates in the world. According to official statistics, an accident takes place every minute on Saudi roads.
In addition to speed, the other major factors that have contributed to the rising rate of accidents are violation of traffic rules, fatigue and in some cases poor driving capabilities.
On Wednesday, two Americans died and seven others including six Americans and a Pakistani were injured when their car hit a truck on the Makkah-Madinah Expressway, near Rabigh. They were traveling from Makkah to Madinah after performing Umrah. The dead were: Manzour Mannan, 63, and Farid Muhammad 38.
