8 dead in triple car collision in Saudi Arabia

Cairo: A collision involving three cars had killed eight people and critically injured five others in Saudi Arabia, according to a media report.

Saudi Red Crescent and civil defence teams from several governorates rushed to the scene of the accident that happened Friday on a road linking Muhayil governorate and Saeeda Al Sawalha town in south-western Saudi Arabia, reported a Saudi news portal.

Civil defence personnel extricated a number of people who had been trapped inside the cars after the mishap.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear, but the report said the road has recently witnessed several fatal accidents.

Many deadly accidents

In recent months, Saudi media reported several deadly accidents.

Last month, an expatriate was killed and four Saudis injured in a collision between cars in Saudi Arabia’s south-western city of Al Baha.

The expatriate, whose nationality was not revealed, died later due to injuries he had sustained in the accident.

The four others included two seriously injured while the two others sustained medium wounds.

Earlier in October, a female schoolteacher was killed and five others injured in a road crash while they were on their way to their school in the city of Yanbu in western Saudi Arabia.

In September, a bus flipped over, leaving four people dead and seven others wounded in the coastal governorate of Al Wajh in north-western Saudi Arabia.

In May, a bus, carrying university students, collided with a car in the central city of Buraidah, leaving one female student dead and 24 others injured.

In March, 21 Umrah pilgrims were killed and 29 others injured when their bus turned over in the south-western Asir region.

Saudi authorities have toughened penalties against traffic offences to reduce road crashes.