‘Five dead in weekend road accidents’

AMMAN — A man in his 30s died on Saturday and his wife was injured in a road accident in the Southern Badia, Maan Public Hospital Director Walid Ruwad said. 

Ruwad said the couple’s car had overturned, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

A day earlier, a 45-year-old was killed and 13 people were injured due to a car wrongfully overtaking another vehicle in Ajloun, according to Lt. Col. Yaser Habahbeh of the Central Traffic Department (CTD). 

Also on Friday, a 12-year-old boy was run over and killed on the Ring Road in east Amman, Habahbeh told The Jordan Times.

The CTD official said the driver is always responsible in such incidents, even when other factors play a role, for example poor visibility due to lack of street lighting.  

On Thursday, a 16-year-old boy died while driving a stolen car in Maan, 220km south of Amman, Habahbeh said.

A 14-year-old passenger was injured in the accident and listed in fair condition in Maan Public Hospital, the Civil Defence Department (CDD) said. 

The accident is under investigation to determine who stole the car, Habahbeh said, adding that neither of the teenagers has driving licence. 

One person died in Amman on Thursday when a car crashed into an electrical transformer due to a sudden lane change, the official said. 

Some 542 people died in around 8,000 accidents in the first nine months of 2016, the CTD said, while there were 1,270 critical injuries and 12,000 minor injuries in the same period. 

During 2015, there were 608 deaths in 9,712 accidents, as well as 2,021 critical injuries and 12,000 minor injuries, according to the department.

On Thursday evening, CDD firefighters dealt with a blaze in the emergency room of Al Bashir Hospital, the department said in a statement.

The cause of the fire, which involved sponge mattresses, is being investigated, the department said, adding that all patients were safely evacuated.