Three dead in truck-tanker collision on Aqaba highway

AMMAN — Three people were killed on Tuesday in a head-on collision between a trailer truck and a natural gas tanker on the Amman-Aqaba highway, official sources said.

The accident, which occurred at around 2pm near the Naqab area, involved a trailer truck that was heading to Amman and a gas tanker bound for Aqaba, a senior official source said.

“The gas tanker was coming down the hill and the driver lost control of the vehicle that swerved into the other lane, slamming head on into a truck coming from the opposite direction,” the source added.

The strong impact caused the immediate death of the two drivers and a Civil Defence Department (CDD) officer who was on the truck, he noted.

The victims, aged 34, 35 and 58, were taken to the Maan and Aqaba public hospitals, a CDD official said.

Traffic officials said they were investigating the accident.

Around 11,004 accidents associated with human injury were registered in 2012, according to official figures.

The number of road-related deaths in Jordan stood at 816 in the same year. Overall, there were 17,143 injuries related to traffic accidents in the country.

Road accidents over the past decade have killed 7,869 people and injured 171,143 in the Kingdom, according to Public Security Department estimates.

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 (around JD311 million).