UAE | Traffic and Transport
Fog and unsafe driving main factors
Police have started investigating the cause of Tuesday's horrific pile-up in Ghantoot in which three people were killed and more than 300 were injured.
- By Rayeesa Absal, Staff Reporter
- Published: 09:51 March 13, 2008
- It was business as usual on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway on Wednesday. The debris on the roadside is all that remains of the deadly carnage that occurred in the early hours of Tuesday near Al Ghantoot.
- Image Credit: Prasad Nair/Gulf News
Abu Dhabi: Police have started investigating the cause of Tuesday's horrific pile-up in Ghantoot in which three people were killed and more than 300 were injured.
Colonel Hamad Adil Al Shamsi, Director of the Traffic and Patrol section of Abu Dhabi police, yesterday told Gulf News: "Police investigations are on to establish the cause of the accident and the first accident in the series that took place.
"The main cause of the accident was fog and failure to maintain a safe distance between vehicles."
Preliminary investigations revealed the crash occurred in Ajban, followed by Ghantoot and then just before the Ghantoot Bridge, where the worst pile-up occurred.
Police yesterday confirmed that 30 cars were gutted in the pile-up that involved 250 vehicles and not 60 as they had earlier said, in the three major crashes on the Abu Dhabi Dubai highway.
Most of the injured were admitted to Al Rahba Hospital and Al Mafraq Hospital, but a few were taken to Shaikh Khalifa Medical City.
Six people remain in critical condition and 33 have been discharged.
A senior official, who requested anonymity, said that the control room could not identify which of the accidents happened first.
"The first call was received at the control room at 6.39am. But those who attended the call could not make out the exact location except that it was on the highway."
Confusion
Because of the fog, the callers could not pinpoint the exact location, he said. He was one among the first to reach the accident site to help the victims.
"From the Abu Dhabi ambulance section five ambulances and a mobile clinic bus reached the spot within minutes. The pile-ups took place almost simultaneously.
"Our team first attended to some construction workers who were in a bus. In the beginning we performed triage, the process of sorting patients according to severity of injuries.
The injured were then taken to Al Rahba Hospital, which was the closest."
After awhile the team rwas told the hospital was full and that they could not take more patients, he said.
"So we started sending patients to Al Mafraq Hospital. At the end of the day, our people did the best they can." There were 12 buses involved in the accident, which pushed up the number of injured, he said.
Witness account
'Most chaotic scene'
"The scene was chaotic and the worst I have ever seen," said Lieutenant Dr Mohammad Maalej, a doctor working with the rescue team of the police, who rushed to the scene with his team to attend to the accident victims.
Doctor Maalej said: "I attended to one person who died on the spot. He died of severe trauma."
"We attended to as many people as possible as fast as possible ... because we were dealing with the lives of people," he said.
Speaking to Gulf News at the end of the task of helping as many victims as possible, the doctor said he was tired but happy that he did the best he could.
- R.A.
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