Muscat/Sharjah: Two Sharjah-based Indian expatriates were among 13 people killed within a span of 12 hours as fatal accidents that started with the advent of Eid Al Fitr continued in Oman.
Two Sharjah-based families were involved in an accident near Adam on Monday late afternoon as they were returning from Salalah after enjoying pleasant weather conditions in the south of Oman. Mathew Augustine from India’s southern state of Kerala died on the spot while ten-year-old Shreyas Rathod was pronounced dead on arrivalthe Nizwa Hospital.
Shreyas’s parents Rajesh and Shilpa Rathod were also injured in the accident.
Later on Monday night at around 10.30pm, a teacher from Bahla, Humaid Al Hinai, his wife, his sister and two daughters were killed when their car was involved in a head-on collision near Bahla,208km north-east ofMuscat. Humaid’s two other daughters and his sister’s son were injured and admitted to the Nizwa Hospital.
Meanwhile, four Bangladeshi fishing sector workers were killed in east coast town of Khuwaymah, 500km east ofMuscat,in the early hours of Tuesday whenatruck carrying 22 workerslostcontrol and hit iron road barriers. There were 13 Bangladeshis, seven Indians and two Indians in the truck.
Mohammad Helal (27), Mohammad Belal Hussain (25), Asaduzzaman (30), all from Swandip in Bangladesh, and Mohammed Jamal (45), from Raojan district in Chittagong,died on the spot.
The bodies of the deceased Bangladeshi workers were transferred to the ROP hospital morgue in Muscat. “We have initiated the process to complete paperwork so that the bodies could be sent back to Bangladesh as soon as possible,” Rabi-ul-Islam, Labour Counsellor at the Bangladesh Embassy in Muscat, told Gulf News.
The injured were first taken to the nearby Jalan Bani Bu Ali hospital. “About 12 workers were injured out of which six were transferred to hospital in Sur while the others were treated in Jalan Bani Bu Ali Hospital,” a source at the hospital said on the condition of anonymity.
The source added that the three of the injured – one Indian and two Bangladeshis -had serious injuries and are admitted in Sur Hospital. “The others had also suffered injuries but were not serious,” the source added.
“The accident took place in the [early]hours when the Omani driver of the truck lost control and the vehicle veered off the road and hit the iron road barriers,” a spokesperson for the Royal Oman Police’s Public Relations Department told Gulf News.
The police in Oman reiterated the need for motorists to abide speed limits and avoid dangerous overtaking, especially on the single carriage roads in the interiors.
The ROP have also warned those who violate traffic regulations about carrying people in their vehicles. “Proper vehicles should be used to transfer workers,” the police spokesperson stressed.
The accident victims in Kuwaymah were being transported in a small pickup truck in violation of traffic regulations.
Meanwhile, the ROP have reported a death of an Asian construction worker in Nizwa. “He lost footing on a scaffolding the fell to his death at an under construction site,” the ROP spokesperson revealed.
