Five people died and two others were injured in a car accident on the Abu Hadriyah Misha’ab road to Dammam on Friday.

Fahd Al-Ghamdi, spokesman of the Red Crescent in the Eastern Province, said four rescue teams with ambulances rushed to the crash site.

One of the injured was a child who was taken to a hospital in a serious condition, said the Red Crescent statement.

The road is an old highway in the Eastern Province that extends from King Fahd Causeway, linking Bahrain to the Kingdom.

The 300-km road is a main route for trucks carrying goods in the province, and runs parallel to the Dhahran-Jubail Highway.

The highway has the highest rate of annual fatal car accidents in the Kingdom.

The majority of accidents are caused by individuals driving at high speed, poor road maintenance and lack of lights.

Zuhair bin Abdul Rahman, director of regulations at the Madinah traffic department, said 17 people die a day, or one every 90 minutes, on Saudi roads.

In addition, about 68,000 people are injured in accidents a year, meaning an injury or disability every 15 minutes. He said accidents cost the Kingdom around SR13 billion annually, with injured people occupying one-third of government hospital beds.