Cairo: A truck driver, who allegedly fell asleep while behind the wheel, is blamed for a crash that triggered a fire on a road in Saudi Arabia.
The incident between a fuel truck and a car on a road in Muhayil Asir governorate in south-western Saudi Arabia, resulting in a huge blaze that spread behind due to fuel leakage before civil defence teams were able to bring it under control, Saudi news website said.
Civil defence personnel also retrieved the truck driver trapped in the vehicle unharmed.
The cause of the accident is attributed to the truck driver, who fell asleep and collided with the car. The latter’s driver was injured and hospitalised.
In recent months, Saudi media reported several deadly accidents.
In July, two vehicles collided on a road leading to the Saudi holy city of Medina, leaving four people dead.
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, their university said.
In March, 21 Umrah pilgrims were killed and 29 others injured when their bus turned over in the south-western Asir region.
In recent years, Saudi authorities have toughened penalties against traffic offences to reduce road crashes.
Traffic deaths have dropped by around 35 per cent in five years from 2016 in the kingdom.
The annual cost of traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia is estimated at around SR11.7 billion.
Around 9,420 accidents were registered inside the kingdom’s cities against 7,542 outside them last year, according to official figures. Those accidents resulted in a total of 4,555 deaths.
