Muscat: On a day when the country was supposed to be observing Traffic Safety Day, three girls were killed in a bus crash in Muscat's Al Khodh district.
The three young women from the Middle East College of Information and Technology (MECIT) died and 31 were injured when the college bus that was bringing them back to their home went out of control and rammed into a parked truck before toppling over.
According to reports, the bus driver lost control of the vehicle after a tyre burst. He then hit the parked truck, broke through the metal grill divider, before the bus fell on its side after hitting another car.
"One girl died on the spot," a spokesman for the Royal Oman (ROP) said. The other two died later at the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital.
"Four girls are still in ICU and are [in] critical [condition]," the ROP spokesperson said.
Four other girls are recovering well, however, and the rest were released from hospital after their minor injuries were treated. The driver of the bus escaped with minor bruises.
A large number of MECIT students turned up at the hospital late on Monday night to offer to donate blood for their college friends.
Earlier in the day, Lieutenant General Malik Bin Sulaiman Al Ma'amari, Inspector-General of Police and Customs, said that traffic accident in the country had dropped by 19 per cent in the last year.
He revealed that one year after the Sultan gave his Royal Speech last October in Saih Al Makarim, the number of mortalities from traffic accidents declined by 188 in comparison to the previous year.
"The number of fatalities before His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said's Royal directives on the issue, during his meet-the-people tour was 990, compared to 802," he said, while announcing that October 18 would be marked every year in Oman as Traffic Safety Day.
He also announced that a competition on road safety would take place on that day.
The competition willl be open to both individuals and institutions and will aim to increase traffic awareness, asking people to submit proposals and provide solutions to traffic-related issues.
He further highlighted the role of secret police in controlling traffic, adding that their work will gradually decrease in coming years, as social awareness grows and people start to follow the traffic rules themselves.
