Road horror in Abu Dhabi - Eight dead
Abu Dhabi March 11, 2008: Eight people have died and 141 others have been
injured in a horrifying 200-vehicle pileup between Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the
early hours of Tuesday, said emergency workers.
The vehicles smashed into each other in thick fog at around 6.45 am on the
Dubai-bound side of Shaikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Road, said eyewitnesses and
emergency workers.
Emergency workers said two major pileups actually occurred on the Abu
Dhabi-Dubai freeway. The first one took place near Ghantoot, involving over 50
cars. The second one was near Samha, just before Ghantoot.
As of 1pm on Tuesday, a total of 141 injuries were reported, of which 39 were
major injuries and 102 minor. The injured were taken to Rashid Hospital in
Dubai and Al Mafrak Hospital and Khaleefa Hospital in Abu Dhabi.
Ninety-two cars caught fire in the smash-ups, said Khalifa Al Darrai, chief
executive of the ambulance service centre in Dubai.
"I have never witnessed an accident of this scale before. Apparently, there
was thick fog that led to the collisions.
"Patients were lying on the road. Thankfully, they had abandoned their cars
or else the death toll would have risen significantly," Al Darrai told XPRESS
by phone.
"We sent people who suffered serious to minor injuries to two hospitals."
The centre sent over a dozen ambulances, three first response cars and two
disaster cars to the accident site.
"Two doctors and nurses from the Rashid Trauma Centre have been sent in a
police helicopter to the site. In addition to this there are many ambulances
and police rescue teams that have been sent from Abu Dhabi," said Al Darrai.
It will take time before the extent of the incident can be assessed, said Al
Darrai.
"Now we are clearing off the burnt cars from the road and trying to bring the
situation under control."
An eyewitness said the stretch of highway near Ghantoot looked like a
"disaster area", because of the huge number of vehicles that went up in smoke.
In Dubai, six people have been rushed to Rashid trauma centre.
"It is a disaster because all the patients were brought in a critical
condition and are undergoing surgery at this moment," said a doctor at the
centre.
An employee of Al Nisr Group making his way towards Dubai in the morning
said, "You could just hear them (cars) crash. I couldnt see anything in front
of me because of the dense fog."
The accident scene, located approximately 60 kilometers outside the capital,
is nearby the Al Ghantoot area.
Traffic is being diverted back to Abu Dhabi through an exit close to the
scene along the highway.
The other side of the road is clear, it has been reported.
A fuel leak may have triggered a chain reaction that set more than 92 cars on
fire, according to witnesses.
Jassim Al Nuaimi, who drove before 7.30am on the other side of the road from
Khalifa City A to Abu Dhabi, told XPRESS he had difficulty stopping his car,
and said the slippery road conditions may have worsened the accident.
"I was driving at 40kph and the outside temperature was about 16 degree C. I
slammed on the breaks but my car still slid three car lengths," said Al Nuaimi.
Zeeshan Javed a regular commuter on the stretch says that he just escaped by
a whisker as the cars in front of smashed into each other. "It was a big pile
up. I personally counted about eighty cars that had been wrecked beyond
recognition. Even though emergency units were quick to respond the fact
remains that there have been casualities. I have never seen an accident of this
magnitude. Some cars that had caught fire were charred beyond recognition. This
has to be the worst ever."
Mobi Sher another commuter said that he was stuck in the traffic jam as a
result of the accident for almost four hours. "The scene was absolutely
ghastly. All around me the cars were lying in a massive wreck." While the poor
visibility conditions have been blamed for the mishap, Sher said that the
presence of oil residue from cars on the road probably contributed to the
massive pile-up. "I have noticed that most motorists tend to speed on this
stretch and that could contributed to the entire mess. It was horrific."
For Imad Eldin it was a nightmare that had come rather early in the morning.
Eldin who travels to Dubai everyday to his job in Al Quoz cannot bring himself
to talk about the horrendous scenes he witnessed. "There were cars littered all
over, ambulance sirens wailing, it was absolutely unreal. I was stuck in the
same spot for three hours. I saw people sitting motionless in front of their
steering wheels. There were others that were lying on the road and still
others with injuries waiting to be attended to by the paramedics. I hope they
were alright though the cab driver kept insisting that they were dead. It is
terrible. I personally saw about eight completely wrecked vehicles. I had only
heard about these tragedies, but today I have seen one for myself. I wish I
hadnt."
XPRESS/Khaleej Times
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