‘Five killed, 364 injured in Eid road accidents’

AMMAN — Five people died and 364 were injured in 805 accidents that took place during the Eid Al Fitr holiday, the Civil Defence Department (CDD) said Tuesday. 

The CDD said that its cadres also dealt with 1,625 medical cases during the Friday-Monday holiday, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

On Tuesday, a Saudi national died and two others were injured in a traffic accident in Maan’s Batn Al Ghoul area on the international road leading to the Saudi border, reported by Maan CDD, according to Petra. 

The vehicle veered off the road and overturned, Maan CDD Director Lt. Col. Salem Sarayrah said, adding that CDD personnel rushed to the scene and rescued the injured persons, Petra reported. 

Maan Public Hospital Director Walid Ruwad said the injured were in fair condition. 

In another accident, two people died and eight were injured when a vehicle overturned on the Irbid-Jerash road, the CDD said Tuesday. 

CDD cadres administered first aid to the injured and took them to King Abdullah I University Hospital where they were listed in fair condition, Petra reported.

In the first two weeks of Ramadan, 2,620 road accidents took place in Jordan, 284 more than in the same period of 2014, according to the Central Traffic Department.

Speeding, reckless driving, congestion, wrongful overtaking and tailgating were the main reasons behind the accidents this month, the department said.

But the number of deaths as a result of traffic accidents during the first two weeks of Ramadan was 52.6 per cent less than the same weeks of Ramadan in 2014.