Four dead on highway linking Jordan, Saudi Arabia

AMMAN — Four people were killed on Tuesday in a road collision between two vehicles on the Azraq-Omari highway, official sources said.

The accident, which occurred at 8am, around 20 kilometres from the border involved a Saudi vehicle that was heading to the border and a Jordanian vehicle that was coming from the other direction on a two-lane road, a senior traffic official said.

“The Saudi vehicle took a wrongful overturn and collided head on with the oncoming vehicle,” the senior official told The Jordan Times.

The strong impact caused the immediate death of the passengers and both vehicles were engulfed in flames, the traffic official added.

The traffic official added that when vehicles catch on fire, it is usually “caused by a rupture in the gasoline hose as a result of the accident and any small heat source or a spark that could occur form the impact will immediately cause fire”.

Civil Defence Department (CDD) officials said that all four victims, including two Jordanians, were burnt beyond recognition.

The bodies were sent to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine for an autopsy, the CDD official added.