Dubai: A woman was killed and 16 people were injured as a pickup vehicle crashed into a bus in Al Muhaisnah 2 area of Dubai on Thursday morning.
The bus was transporting male and female employees of a company.
Major-General Pilot Anas Al Matroushi, Director of the General Department of Transport and Rescue, said, “The accident took place around 9.30am, when the pickup suddenly swerved after failing to stop for the red signal on time. The driver hit the brakes hard and lost control of the vehicle, which swerved and went over the median strip and hit the bus on the other side of the road, killing a woman and injuring 15 passengers on the bus.”
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.
Of the 16 people injured, seven persons, including the pickup driver, were severely injured while nine sustained minor injuries. They were all transferred to Rashid Hospital.
Maj-Gen Al Matroushi said rescue teams were at the scene of the accident within eight minutes. “Four passengers, a man and three women, were stuck in the bus, and the rescue team used hydraulic cutters to get them out. They were extracted in 13 minutes,” he said.
Lt-Colonel Abdullah Rashid Al Hafeet, Deputy Director of Al Ghusais police station, said teams were immediately dispatched to the scene where they took the required procedures and organised the flow of traffic.
This is the second serious traffic accident involving a bus in less than two weeks in Dubai.
On July 26, seven people were killed and 13 others were injured after a minibus crashed into a stationary truck on Emirates Road.
The bus was carrying 20 people and the driver was among those who were killed on the spot.
The truck driver had stopped his vehicle in the middle of the road after getting into a minor accident, and the bus driver did not notice the truck until it was too late.
According to the latest statistics by the police last month, there was an increase in the number of fatal accidents in Dubai, with 59 reported in the second quarter of this year compared to 42 in the same period in 2015.
