Highway horror

Dubai: In one of the worst traffic accidents in the UAE, nine people were killed and more than 50 injured when a speeding bus carrying dozens of workers overturned on Shaikh Zayed Road and collided with another bus yesterday.

It was not a scene of a Hollywood action movie but a horrific accident on one of Dubai's busiest arteries, which happened as the driver of the big bus was speeding in the fast lane, travelling from Jebel Ali.

According to police, the driver lost control and hit a bus that was in the adjacent lane, turned over, slid across the wet road and the centre barrier into the opposite lane. A minibus carrying another group of workers crashed into the bus and its driver was killed on the spot.

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) described the accident as “horrendous''. It led to an alarming increase in statistics of deaths on Dubai roads in December, which have so far reached 26. Traffic on Shaikh Zayed Road was stalled for hours during the morning rush.

Police and rescue officials said 15 ambulances and two helicopters were involved in carrying the injured to hospitals. Ambulances started arriving at the Rashid Hospital Trauma Centre at 7.36am, eight minutes after the call came from Dubai Police.

“There was so much blood in the bus. It was terrible,'' a police officer told Gulf News. Mohammad Ilyas Miha, a 40-year old worker with CSCEC Middle East, told Gulf News he was sitting in the middle of the bus, the point of impact.

“It happened so suddenly. I saw a foreman [sitting next to me] die,'' he said.

The father-of-two from Bangla-desh sustained injuries to his legs, hands and neck.