Dubai: Survivors of Saturday’s deadly Dubai bus crash that police say killed 13 workers and injured 12 have spoken of horrific scenes.
Some of the injured told Gulf News a number of victims had been badly mutilated and “there was blood everywhere”.
The bus, reportedly carrying 27 welders and fabricators from India and Bangladesh, hit a truck parked on the hard shoulder on Emirates Road early on Saturday, police said.
“I was sleeping when the bus hit something and we flipped. Everything was spinning, I didn’t know what was going on,” said an Indian worker, who declined to be named.
“When I came to my senses, I saw a few of my colleagues with the skin ripped off from their chin and forehead.”
Another said that following the accident, “there was blood everywhere. My clothes and hands, parts of the bus, the road – everything was soaked in blood. I don’t know whose blood was on whom. I blacked out and woke up in hospital.”
A Bangladeshi worker, Mamun Mia, said: “My colleagues are gone. It was all over in seconds.”
A man who identified himself as the cousin of two Bangladeshi workers involved in the crash was found crying outside the emergency section of Dubai’s Rashid Hospital at around 1pm.
“I got a phone call from a worker saying ‘your cousins may be dead’. I don’t know if my cousins are dead or alive, I haven’t been able to find out about them,” said Mohammad Mitu, 29.
“One of them, a 32-year-old, is married with two children. What do I tell his family back home?
“The other is aged 25; both have been working in the UAE for three to five years.”
Mitu climbed into a company bus that was picking up some of the workers discharged from hospital and hugged them, bursting into tears.
Some of those in the bus cried as well.
The workers said they had left their housing facility in Umm Al Quwain and were headed to their work site in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone when the accident happened on Emirates Road (formerly Bypass Road).
“Police, ambulance and a helicopter arrived in minutes. The serious cases were flown away. I passed out and woke up in an ambulance. I saw medics treating me and fell unconscious again,” one Indian worker said.
Some colleagues who heard of the accident visited the hospital to check on survivors and lend emotional support.
A representative of Sharjah-based Holland, the workers’ “labour supply company”, said: “We don’t know the reason of the accident yet. The driver has been taken to Rashidiya police station. The survivors have received moderate or not so serious injuries. [Some] have fractures like broken legs.”
The Pakistani drivers of the mangled bus and the truck have been placed in provisional custody, officials said.
A man who identified himself as the driver’s uncle said he received a call from the driver shortly after the accident.
“He told me that the front tyre of the bus had a puncture before the accident,” the man said on condition of anonymity.
However, investigators made no mention of a flat tyre or tyre blow out in their initial findings. None of the workers interviewed by Gulf News said there was a tyre problem.
Two workers added that though they could not be sure, they believe the driver had fallen asleep.
