Madinah governor orders probe into teachers’ deaths

Prince Faisal bin Salman, governor of Madinah, directed government agencies supervising female teacher safety and traffic problems to form a committee to investigate and identify dangerous conditions, and implement new safety standards.
The report, which will focus on protecting women teachers to and from area schools, will be submitted to the Minister of Interior.
Muhammad Said, spokesman for the Madinah Municipality, said that the governor’s instructions were prompted by several fatal accidents involving female teachers in the area.
The report should be ready within 24 hours, he said.
The directive comes as a response to an incident that took place recently that claimed the lives of three women and caused injuries to the driver and three other teachers on a highway 190 km off Madinah.
Sources told Al Hayah newspaper that one teacher, Raw’ah Abd Al-Aziz, 29, has left the hospital. Two other teachers, Najla Al-Jahni and Samar Sharif, are still being treated.
The sources said that the driver, Muhammad Al-Banna, 26, underwent more than six operations. His condition remains critical.
Col. Omar Nazzawi, director of the safety section, said that investigation is still underway to determine the cause of the accident. The investigation committee is still waiting to take the statement of the driver, he said.
A source said that in cases in which a vehicles overturns, the driver is likely to be held responsible for the accident.
“We are traumatized because we lost dear colleagues,” said Nawal Al-Ghaidani, the school principal.
Also yesterday, Major General Samir Asadi, director of the highway safety department in Madinah, offered his condolences to the families of the deceased teachers who died in the bus crash.
He said that department called for the establishment of a fleet of vehicles to transport female teachers in order to regulate transportation and minimize traffic accidents in which female teachers lose their lives.
He stressed that most vehicles that transport female students lack safety conditions, either because the back seats are taken off the vehicle, or because of the use of old and worn tires, in addition to the speeding by drivers.
“We are an agency that performs duties like giving tickets to the drivers or suspending drivers who are in violation of the regulations, and we submit our reports on a timely basis to authorities,” he said.
Meanwhile, the General Directorate for Retirement said that the employee who loses his life on the job will receive annuity that is at least 80 percent of his last basic salary, regardless of his years of service.