Five people died and two others were seriously hurt when a car crashed into a heavy lorry at an intersection in the Salama area of Umm al Qaiwain yesterday. One of the injured was given little chance of surviving. Speaking at the scene of the accident, Capt Saif Zayed, the head of the Salama branch of the police traffic department, said the driver of a Toyota Camry, which was carrying six Bangladeshis, drove into the intersection as the lorry was passing through.
The driver of the Camry was among the dead. The lorry driver, from Egypt, escaped unharmed. The injured were taken to Umm al Qaiwain Hospital, where officials said two remained in intensive care. One had sustained serious head injuries and there was little chance he would survive, they said. Major Obaid Ali Fadheel, the head of the emirate's traffic department, who was also at the accident scene, said the intersection had been badly designed. He said police had asked the department of planning and roads to set up speed bumps at the intersection and at nine others across the emirate.
Eng Mahmoud, the department's deputy director, later said it would introduce the bumps this week. He said the safety measures had been planned for some time but had been delayed by "essential" bureaucratic procedures. "We have already pinned up a number of boards on the roads giving directions to the drivers of which roads to take and warnings of intersections ahead, next we are going to put the humps," he said.
Police also said yesterday that there were 56 traffic accidents in Umm al Qaiwain during the Eid holidays. ykanande@thenational.ae
