AMMAN — Four people were killed and four others were injured, one critically, in a road accident near Madaba Bridge on Monday morning, official sources said.
The accident involved a trailer truck and five vehicles on a four-lane road that connects Amman with Madaba, Maj. Ziad Abdul Aziz, director of the Traffic Investigation Department, said.
Abdul Aziz told The Jordan Times that a white vehicle with five passengers heading to Amman from Madaba was speeding.
“Wrongful overtaking by the driver resulted in the vehicle slamming into the street divider, crossing to the other side and crashing head on with the trailer truck that was coming from the other direction,” the traffic official said.
The vehicle was pinned under the truck and was dragged for 30 metres, and the two entangled vehicles collided with four others on the same road, Abdul Aziz explained.
“The strong impact resulted in the immediate death of four of the five occupants of the white vehicle and the injury of three passengers in the trailer truck,” he added.
The driver of the white vehicle was the sole survivor and is listed in critical condition, according to Abdul Aziz.
The victims were aged 37, 24, 21 and 24.
The injured were rushed to Hamaideh and Bashir hospitals, a Civil Defence Department official told The Jordan Times.
The four other vehicles were heavily damaged as a result of the collision, he added.
According to Central Traffic Department figures, around 11,004 accidents associated with human injury were registered in 2012, with 816 road-related deaths.
In late 2012, the Public Security Department said road accidents over a decade had killed 7,869 people and injured 171,143 in the Kingdom.
In 2011, more than 142,000 accidents took place in Jordan, resulting in 694 fatalities and 18,122 injuries, while financial losses amounted to about $440 million.
