A traffic accident that occurred on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai road yesterday morning resulted in the death of four people, including a policeman, and the injury of 347, medical sources classified the injuries of 15 of them as serious, 60 as moderate, and more than 200 as minor. Four serious cases were transferred to Al Rahba Hospital. According to police sources and witnesses, collisions occurred between 196 cars between six and six-thirty yesterday morning, in three main areas: Al-Shahama, Al-Rahba and Ghantoot. Director of the Traffic and Patrols Department, Colonel Hamad Adeel Al Shamsi, said in press statements that the causes of the first accident are still unknown, “but evidence indicates that a collision occurred between at least two vehicles and they deviated after the collision, resulting in a succession of collisions on the road, in addition to factors of fog, lack of visibility, and the flying of oils.” On the sidewalk and not leaving enough distance between vehicles,” he added, adding that “the heavy material losses were among light vehicles.” Omar Hassan Al-Amin, Chairman of the Insurance Action Group in Dubai and General Manager of the Arab Levant Insurance Company, estimated the financial losses that insurance companies will incur as a result of the accident at about 100 million dirhams. For his part, Meteorological Center spokesman Muhammad Al-Abri said that he asked road users to drive their vehicles with extreme caution during the early morning hours, as a result of the prevailing low horizontal visibility due to the formation of fog during the past three days. The series of collisions occurred between about 200 buses and light vehicles on the road extending from Al Bahia Bridge to Ghantoot Bridge, towards the outside, amid foggy conditions and a lack of visibility for more than a few metres, while eyewitnesses and officials described the accident as the largest traffic disaster the country has ever witnessed, from In terms of the size of human losses and the number of vehicles collided. Lieutenant General His Highness Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of the Interior, expressed his regret over the accident, and the resulting major injuries and deaths, due to bad weather conditions, dense fog, and insufficient attention on the part of drivers, “which caused a double number of unprecedented collisions,” calling Road users should be careful, especially in cases of insufficient visibility. In detail, the Director of the Emergency and Safety Department at Abu Dhabi Police, Colonel Othman Al-Tamami, stated that the Central Operations Room “received a report at 6:39 am yesterday morning about the occurrence of traffic accidents and successive collisions on the road extending from Al Bahia Bridge to Ghantoot Bridge towards the outside.” He added, “Abu Dhabi Police’s emergency, ambulance, and rescue vehicles, accident responders, civil defense fire engines, two helicopters from the Air Wing, Dubai Police, and support teams from the armed forces moved to the accident site, in addition to a number of traffic patrols and other vehicles.” He said that the work “first focused on ensuring the safety of everyone, including the injured and passers-by, and extinguishing the fires that broke out between a number of colliding cars.” The injured were evacuated and transported to the nearest hospitals, and the road was cleared in record time.” For his part, Director of the Traffic and Patrols Department, Colonel Hamad Adeel Al Shamsi, stated that the ambulance and evacuation operations were completed within only four hours, despite the major obstacles faced by the movement of the participating vehicles, due to the bad weather condition and the overlapping of large buses, a total of 12 buses, closing the road to… Vehicles and preventing them from reaching fire sites and injured people. He added: “The injuries varied between moderate and severe, in addition to a number of children and women. The injured were transported and distributed between Al Rahba, Mafraq and Khalifa hospitals, and a large proportion of the injuries were concentrated among bus passengers.” The road was closed to vehicles coming from Abu Dhabi for more than five hours so that the injured could be transported and the colliding vehicles removed from the road. Police sources attributed the high number of accidents to lack of visibility due to dense fog, in addition to the heavy traffic at that time in the morning, as a result of large numbers of employees who live in Abu Dhabi heading to their work in Dubai, in addition to many workers heading to their work sites. She said that about 35 vehicles burned due to the severity of the collision and the leakage of oils and petroleum materials on the road, adding that rescue and rapid intervention units removed large numbers of burning vehicles to the right side of the road, while the remains of vehicles were seen scattered on the island of the road. Eyewitnesses and victims confirmed that lack of vision was the cause of this accident. Rami Adwan said, “The density of fog prompted one of the drivers to decide to suddenly stop his car and get out of it. Other drivers coming from behind were forced to stop suddenly, and the cars collided from the front and back.” Raju Mohnen said, “One person caused this major accident,” pointing out that “the problem lies in the cars approaching each other, which led to them colliding at high speed without the drivers being able to control them.” Hamada Salah narrated that he made a great effort to control the brakes, but his attempt was in vain, due to the large number of cars colliding with each other. While Zainab Al-Rumaithi said, “I felt like I was dreaming.” “I did not expect to be in this situation.” She added: “The cars in front of me stopped suddenly, which forced me to stop suddenly as well. I collided with a car in front of me and my car collided with another car coming from behind.” As for Amjad Haddad, he said that the diesel and gasoline that poured from the cars onto the street following the accident caused many other cars to slide, some of which also collided with each other. While Ainullah Khan confirmed that the scene of the collisions was very violent
“The worst traffic accident in the history of the Emirates” “It is the worst traffic accident in the history of the Emirates,” said one of the Al Rahba policemen, after the street turned into a huge “scrap” due to the number of colliding cars. He continued: “The horns of ambulances, traffic police cars, and the spread of police patrols multiplied as a result of the horror of the scene. As for those who got out of their car unharmed, they were standing with their hand on their cheek, looking at their wrecked car in a state of astonishment.”
First accident Director of the Traffic and Patrols Department, Colonel Hamad Adeel Al Shamsi, said that there is difficulty in knowing the scenario of the first collision occurring, and the resulting several successive collisions between vehicles in the area between Al Rahba and Ghantoot. He stressed that investigations are underway to determine the circumstances of the occurrence of this large number of accidents, but other police sources suggested that the main reason was a collision between two vehicles that led to them deviating from their lane and obstructing the road for vehicles coming from behind, and as the drivers attempted to avoid the collision and change the lane, the collisions continued sharply. Especially strong with increased speed and lack of visibility. Colonel Al Shamsi explained, “All vehicles were transferred from the accident site to police custody to conduct an investigation into the nature of the accident and the nature of the losses in the vehicle, and to issue insurance papers to their owners to pay their compensation from insurance companies and repair it.” Pointing out that many individuals were able to go to the Al Rahba Police Department on their own to complete their procedures, and others can come back at any time to obtain an incident report.
Views Many relatives of the victims and those injured in the accident came from the emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai to check on their families.
Irresponsible behavior by some motorists who took the emergency line street for police cars and ambulances as a refuge to escape traffic congestion. The traffic jam on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai Highway continued for nearly seven hours. The emergency line did not stop from ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars. |
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