GCC road crash news

An Emirati mother and her two children died on Friday afternoon when the driver of Nissan Patrol in which they were travelling to a family picnic lost control of the vehicle on the Dubai-Sharjah road. The vehicle hit the pavement, flipped over and rolled several times. The 3 were killed instantly and 7 others hospitalised with moderate to severe injuries.

A father died together with his 2 year old daughter when their car left the road and plunged into a pedestrian underpass at 2.15am Saturday morning. The father, a Pakistani national, was reportedly using a mobile phone and travelling at speed when he lost control, swerved off the road, hit the pedestrian barrier and plunged down the stairs. The toddler was killed instantly, the father dying later in hospital. The distraught wife and second child travelling behind in another car were the first to arrive at the accident site and were escorted away in an ambulance.

12 people, 8 Emirates and 4 Omanis, died when two Toyota station wagons collided head-on on the Al Ain-Al Wegan highway at 1.30am on Friday morning. According to Al Ain Traffic police, the accident occurred when the vehicle driven by an Omani national swerved at high speed into the path of the other vehicle overloaded with 14 members of an Emirati family returning home from a wedding celebration. Due to the high impact of the crash, both vehicles caught fire. A 9 year old girl was found by a police rescue team running for help in the dark on the deserted road. The girl, who had been sleeping between the seats of the vehicle carrying the wedding party and escaped injury in the accident, was in a state of shock having witnessed her family die in the blaze.

A six-year-old Emirati boy died on Friday when a heavy vehicle rammed into the car which his father was driving. A senior police officer said the boy died on the spot of the accident on Dhayyah Road. The father and five other family members sustained moderate to serious injuries and were hospitalised.

3 construction workers, 2 Indians and I Pakistani, died and 12 were injured after a sewage water tanker slammed into their minibus at a roundabout near Jebal Ali at 7.30am on Friday morning. The minibus was then hit by a bus. According to police, the driver of tanker was speeding when he lost control, crashed into the minibus and overturned. An eyewitness said that the minibus was completely crushed with some victims trapped inside and others thrown into the road. 3 people died on the spot and 12 were hospitalised with moderate to severe injuries.

7 people were killed and 39 injured when a bus carrying 48 pilgrims home from Medina to Bahrain crashed into the back of a fuel tanker in Al Qaseem near Riyadh at 11.00 am and exploded in flames. The Bahraini bus driver and 6 passengers died at the scene and 4 of the injured were reported to be in critical condition. Bharain sent an emergency delegation to Saudi Arabia to help investigate and repatriate the crash victims.

3 people were killed and 277 injured, many seriously, in the United Arab Emirates when dozens of cars and buses collided in thick fog in what could be the country's biggest traffic accident, police said. As many as 20 cars were set ablaze in the pile-up at the start of the morning rush hour on the main motorway between the UAE trade hub of Dubai and the capital Abu Dhabi, police said. The death toll rose as another casualty died from head trauma in hospital. The police investigation of the site backed up traffic in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi for hours, stretching into the evening rush hour. The pile up was made worse by the fact that 12 buses carrying some 300 workers in total were involved in the crash.

An Abu Dhabi traffic police officer at the crash site said: "The crash happened because everyone was speeding despite the severe weather conditions. Drivers weren't leaving a safe distance between cars and this resulted in everyone hitting each other after the first crash." Read more

Traffic in the Emirates has increased dramatically in recent years as the country's economy has boomed, especially in the city of Dubai, which has become the de facto business center of the Middle East.

25 people were killed and 8 others injured, some seriously, in the Asir region of Saudi Arabia on Friday when a bus overturned. Initial investigations attributed the cause of the accident to faulty brakes.

16 migrant workers died and 16 were injured near Abqaiq on the desert highway linking Riyadh and the Gulf coast when the bus carrying them hit a sports utility vehicle. 11 of the dead were Bangladeshi, 3 Pakistani and 2 Indian according to Arab News. Many sections of the highway ae unlit and badly surfaced and motorists often exceed the 120 kilometres per hour speed limit.