UAE - Recklessness has remained the major cause of fatal accidents in the UAE, according to traffic authorities.

Police across the country have on many occasions attributed serious crashes involving buses and trucks in which many people lost their lives to carelessness and reckless driving.

Thursday's accident on Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Street opposite Al Raha Beach, where six people, including five women, lost their lives and 19 others suffered injuries, caused by careless driving.

"Out of the 19 injured, majority are from Nepal. Also there are a few people from Sri Lanka and Uganda," social worker M.M. Nasar Kanhangad, who is following the case said. An official from the Sri Lankan Embassy said the people inside the bus were all staff of a cleaning service company.

Officials of various embassies are at the spot trying to gather details about the three unidentified bodies.

"We are coordinating with police, hospital and mortuary for updates about the unidentified and those who are injured," an official from Sri Lankan Embassy added.

According to the police, the crash had resulted from the errant driver of a car, who was driving recklessly in front of a truck. He slowed down to take an exit on the road, which confused the lorry driver who was forced to apply sudden break. Another lorry that was travelling behind it managed to stop in time to avoid a crash and then turned on its hazard lights.

However, the driver of a bus that was travelling behind the second lorry was unable to stop in time and rammed into the back of the second lorry, causing fatalities and injuries to the workers who were travelling on the bus.

The police said excessive speed and the failure of the bus driver to take into account the road conditions also led to the collision.

In a similar accident in Dubai in October 2019, eight people were killed and six seriously injured when a van crashed into a truck on the Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Road. The accident occurred in the direction towards Sharjah just before the Mirdif City Centre exit. Six Nepalese, an Indian and the Pakistani driver were killed instantly. The passengers were travelling to their workplace in Al Warqaa when the van crashed into the stationary truck on the road shoulder.

In June 2019, 17 people died and five others were critically injured when a bus full of holiday makers returning from Oman after the Eid holidays met with an accident near Rashidiya exit on Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Road in Dubai.

The Dubai Police said that the accident happened when the Omani bus driver was just a minute away from dropping the passengers near the Rashidya Metro Station. The driver wrongly entered the place allocated for cars and crashed into a signboard near the metro station.

"Distracted driving is among the top causes of accidents, injuries and death on UAE's roads. Use of mobile phones behind the wheels is one of the many sources of distractions," Thomas Edelmann, founder and managing director of RoadSafety UAE, had earlier told Khaleej Times.

 

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