Seven dead in weekend road accidents

AMMAN — Seven people were killed on Saturday and Friday in four separate traffic accidents in the Kingdom, official sources said.

On Saturday, a woman in her twenties died and another person was injured in a collision involving a pickup truck and a learner driver's vehicle on Mafraq-Khaldieh road.

The Jordan News Agency, Petra, quoted Ismeir Mashaqbeh, the director of Mafraq Public Hospital, as saying that the woman was dead on arrival.

In one incident on Friday, two Syrian children, aged four and five, died and their parents were injured after being hit by a vehicle on the Dead Sea highway, a senior traffic official said.

“The family was crossing the street when they were struck by a speeding vehicle,” the source told The Jordan Times.

The driver was apprehended and the parents was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment, the source added.

In another incident on the same day, three young men were killed when their Hyundai vehicle collided head on with a Mitsubishi Pajero, on the Dead Sea Panorama intersection, according to the traffic official.

“One of the vehicles took a wrongful overtake and collided head on with a vehicle coming from the other direction,” according to the traffic official.

The strong impact caused the immediate death of the three people in the Hyundai, while the Pajero driver was slightly injured and taken to hospital, the source added.

In another incident on Friday, a two-year-old child was killed when her father lost control of his vehicle and it rolled over, the official source said.

“The driver changed his lane suddenly in a spot filled with sand, which caused him to lose control of his vehicle and it rolled over,” the source explained.

The driver, his wife and two other children were injured and rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment, the source added.

By the end of July 2015, 72,290 traffic accidents were recorded in the Kingdom, resulting in 338 deaths and 6,102 injuries, according to Public Security Department figures.

Around 8 per cent of the 1.42 million vehicles registered in the Kingdom are involved in causing traffic accidents each year, Jordan Insurance Federation President Ali Wazani said in previous remarks to The Jordan Times.