Ethiopians die in Madinah car crash

MADINAH: The number of deaths in a tragic Madinah road accident involving a bus carrying foreign workers and a cement truck on Wednesday has risen to 18, local police announced on Thursday.

At least 32 people, 20 of them seriously, were injured in the accident on Daah Road south of Madinah. Initial reports put the number of dead at 13.

According to the police, the accident happened because the young Saudi bus driver in his 20s was speeding.

The police said many of the injured were treated and discharged while others, including the bus driver, are still at King Fahd Hospital in Madinah.

According to the police, most of those who died or injured were Egyptians, Ethiopians and Bangladeshis.

The police statement added that both the bus and cement truck belong to the same company and were both rented by a private contracting company for the Water Department in Madinah.

Police said they were still investigating the case.

They said a young child who was accompanying the bus driver escaped unhurt.

Units from the Civil Defense, traffic police and ambulances were rushed to the scene of the accident.

The bus was carrying 44 expatriate workers of the Water Department to their residential camp in Madinah after work.

According to eyewitnesses, the bus collided with a cement truck coming from the opposite direction close to intersection of the third ring road.

The injured passengers were rushed to hospitals with the help of land and air ambulances. Nine of the injured are in the King Fahd Hospital, 14 in the Al-Miqat Hospital and nine in the Saudi German Hospital, all in Madinah city. Many of the injured were in critical condition.

The Health Department declared a medical emergency in all hospitals in the city to ensure the availability of all doctors and other technical staff and facilities following the accidents.

The Daah Road is a single-track road which thousands of commuters, including teachers and students, use daily and is an infamous accident hots pot.

Madinah Gov. Prince Abdul Aziz bin Majed ordered related government departments to provide all possible assistance to the accident victims. Traffic authorities have ordered an investigation into the accident.

In a separate accident early Wednesday, three people were killed and six others injured when two cars collided head-on on the Madinah-Tabuk road.

Press reports on Thursday said four students and a man were killed in a traffic accident in Buraidah in Qassim province around noon Wednesday.
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