JAZAN: Seven women were killed and five injured as the second family this month suffered multiple fatalities in a traffic accident at Sawarma Road in Jazan region.
Earlier, Sami bin Mohammed Ali Al-Nami lost his wife and six sons in an accident at Al-Kadmi Center in Sibia.
In the latest crash, the five injured include an elderly man, a woman and two children. Witnesses to the accident said family had been traveling to a wedding.
It was reported to Okaz newspaper that the car struck the rear of a truck which was been driven without taillights. The truck was being towed by another truck, near Madaya town, on a single-lane dark highway.
Locals have already petitioned for lighting for the 15km highway, which they say lacks basic safety measures, and is doubly treacherous due to the fact that camels stray on to the road.
A spokesman for Red Crescent in Jazan, Bishi Al-Sarkhi, said the operation room were informed of an accident involving a family car at 8:20 p.m. on Thursday. Four ambulances attended the scene. Six people were found dead, while the five injured were transferred to a nearby hospital.
Yahya Al-Qahtani, spokesman of the Civil Defense in Jazan, said its units attended the scene and pulled out the bodies and the injured from the wreckage. Six people were declared dead at the scene while the five injured were transferred in a Red Crescent ambulance to a nearby hospital. One woman died at the hospital, he added.
Jazan residents hit out at local traffic police after the accident, blaming the lack of year-long lighting on the highway, despite the fact that it is a route to many important cities. They said trucks were the common denominator in the tragedies that have occurred on this road.
They accuse truck drivers of failing to respect the designated schedules, lanes, safety and warning requirements. They said there was and thus led to the destruction of the road due to the excessive gross vehicle weights and overloading.