Saudi woman dies in crash en route to father’s funeral, buried beside him same day

Dubai: A Saudi woman travelling to her father’s funeral was killed in a devastating car crash on the Al-Rain–Riyadh highway on Sunday, only to be buried beside him on the same day. 

The woman was en route with her husband and four young children when their vehicle collided with a heavy transport truck near the Qamran area, southwest of Riyadh.

The impact was catastrophic. While the father and children survived, the mother was killed instantly, her body trapped under the crumpled frame of the family car.

At the time of the accident, a Saudi citizen, Mohammed Al Bijadi, returning from a trip to Riyadh, was driving through the area when he encountered the twisted remains of the family’s vehicle.

Without hesitation, he rushed toward the wreckage, compelled by what he described as an “instinctive sense of duty that asks for no permission.”

Acting swiftly, Al Bijadi managed to extract the father and four children, one by one, from the twisted metal. Despite his efforts, the mother had already succumbed to her injuries, crushed inside the vehicle.

The eldest of the children, a five-year-old girl, was in critical condition and was rushed by ambulance to the nearest health center nearly 180 kilometers away.

Al Bijadi remained by the side of the other children, caring for them throughout the following day until relatives arrived to take them home.

Al Bijadi contacted the children’s uncle, assuring him, “Your children are my children. I will not leave them until they are safely in your hands.”

  -- Huda Ata is an independent writer based in the UAE