Cairo: Six people, including five members of one family, have died in a road crash in Saudi Arabia’s south-western region of Jizan.
A man, his wife and their three daughters as well as a child relative were killed in the tragedy.
A seventh person was injured in the accident, which occurred on Wednesday. The tragedy happened when the family were heading to visit the wife’s ill mother before their car collided into another.
The dead wife’s brother, citing witnesses, said that the other car was driving in the opposite direction of the road when the collision occurred.
He said a nephew had survived the mishap and is in hospital in a stable condition.
In recent weeks, Saudi media reported several deadly accidents.
Cost of accidents is SR11.7 billion
Last Sunday, six people were killed and another person injured in a road crash in Saudi Arabia’s western city of Taif.
The accident involved a car collision on a road linking Taif and the city of Al Bahah in the kingdom’s south west.
A day earlier, four people were killed and two others wounded after two cars collided in the coastal city of Al Qunfudah.
Last month, 21 Umrah pilgrims heading to Mecca were killed and 29 others injured when their bus flipped over in the Asir region in south-western Saudi Arabia.
Earlier in March, a married couple and their four children were killed in a road crash while returning from the capital Riyadh to Jizan after spending the school holiday.
The cost of traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia is estimated at SR11.7 billion.
Around 9,420 accidents were registered in the kingdom’s cities against 7,542 outside them last year. Those accidents resulted in a total of 4,555 deaths.
In recent years, Saudi authorities have toughened penalties against traffic offences to reduce traffic accidents.
