UPDATE: Drivers in deadly crash questioned by Dubai Police
DUBAI // Thirteen labourers were killed and more than a dozen injured early yesterday when their bus ploughed into the back of a stationary lorry on Emirates Road in Dubai.
Nine of the dead were from India and four from Bangladesh.
All 13 were dead by the time paramedics arrived at the scene near exit 50 shortly after the crash at 6.30am. The injured were being treated at Rashid Hospital and Al Baraha Hospital in Dubai.
The mangled wreckage of the bus had to be cut open to free the victims, said Lt Col Ahmed Atiq Burqibah, deputy director of rescue at Dubai Police.
“It’s definitely the biggest accident so far this year,” he said. “So many people died and so many others were injured. It was a big disaster.”
It is thought the bus in which the labourers were travelling had been straddling the right hard shoulder and the nearside lane of the motorway travelling towards Abu Dhabi.
It hit the lorry, which was stopped on the hard shoulder, and skidded for eight metres before flipping over. It then slid five more metres before coming to a stop.
The lorry driver told police he had stopped on the hard shoulder because he suspected something was wrong with the vehicle’s brakes.
A spokesman for the Indian consulate in Dubai confirmed that nine Indian nationals had been killed in the crash, and two injured.
“The consulate is in touch with the survivors and will provide all necessary assistance to them,” the spokesman said. “We will also facilitate the dispatch of the remains of those killed.”
The Bangladeshi consul general, Masood Al Rahman, said four of his country’s nationals were killed in the accident.
“We are visiting hospitals and working with authorities to get more information on this,” he said.
Mr Al Rahman said he could not confirm the nationality of the two remaining victims of the crash.
A spokesman for the Pakistan consulate said that none of their nationals were involved in the accident.
Admissions records from Al Baraha Hospital show that five people were admitted from the crash at 7.50am and that all were discharged at about 10.30am because their injuries were minor.
The deadliest labour transport crash occurred in February 2013 when a lorry laden with 75 tonnes of sand and building materials ploughed into the back of a bus carrying 45 workers.
Twenty-one people were killed and 23 injured.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
This article was amended on May 11 to correct that 13 people had died in the accident, not 15 as previously reported.
