Four passengers died and 11 others were injured in a major accident near Shumaisi on the Jeddah-Makkah Expressway yesterday. The multiple crash was triggered by a large truck overturning and causing a nine-car pileup.
The truck ended up horizontal on the either side of the divider, blocking the busy road for more than two hours.
A highway police officer told Arab News that the accident occurred when the driver of the Jeddah-bound truck lost control of his vehicle, flipped over and collided with the cars on its path and then blocking traffic on both sides of the road. “Four cars were completed destroyed following the crash,” the officer said, adding that the truck had fallen over a Mercedes car. At least four more cars were damaged in the collision.
Eyewitnesses told Arab News that the accident resulted in bringing to a grinding halt all traffic from Sitteen Street of Makkah to Shumaisi on the one side and from Bahrah to Shumaisi on the other side.
Apart from Civil Defense and Red Crescent, an air ambulance plane took part in the rescue operation. The injured were taken to hospital on Red Crescent vans with difficulty because of overcrowded roads.