Abu Dhabi: Five people were killed in a horrific traffic accident on the Abu Dhabi-Al Salaa road near Al Ghuwaifat on Wednesday night.
The accident took place when a 14-passenger minivan crashed into the back of a trailer truck at approximately 11:45pm.
The minivan was dragged for 25 metres because the trailer driver did not feel the impact of the crash. The Pakistani driver of the minivan and his four Japanese passengers were killed.
Colonel Hamad Bin Atheth Al Amiri, Director of Traffic and Patrols on External Roads, said that the trailer driver had joined the highway without checking for oncoming traffic.
He added that traffic patrols and ambulances rushed to the scene of the crash, where emergency workers separated the minivan from the trailer truck using heavy equipment. Thereafter, the driver and his passengers were removed from the minivan.
Al Amiri called on all drivers to be cautious and to learn from the mistakes of others. He said that it was very important for everyone’s safety on the road that drivers made sure that there was no oncoming traffic before joining the highway, especially since drivers tend to speed on such roads.
Second Lieutenant Abdul Rahman Abdullah Al Ali, Head of the Western Region’s Traffic Control section, who attended the scene of the crash, told Gulf News that the four Japanese passengers were dead when emergency workers arrived. The Pakistani driver was transferred to the hospital, but was dead on arrival.
Grisly scene
Emergency workers use heavy equipment to separate a minivan from a trailer truck
that it crashed into. The accident occurred on Wednesday night.
Colonel Hamad Bin Atheth Al Amiri, Director of Traffic and Patrols on External Roads, said that the trailer driver had joined the highway without checking for oncoming traffic.
