A public transport bus and a trailer truck met head-on in the Hadramout desert, and six people did not survive. Another 21 were hurt.
The governor’s media office confirmed the toll on Saturday, May 16. The crash happened on the Al-Abr–Al-Wadeah road. According to the Transport Authority, the bus belonged to the Al-Baraka company and was coming from Saudi Arabia when it hit the truck.
The Authority put out a statement on Friday, May 15, mourning the dead. It set up a technical committee to go to the crash site and work out what went wrong, and said it had started coordinating with other agencies to get medical care and support to the injured. Condolences went to the victims’ families.
Governor orders a report
Al-Khanbashi, who also sits on Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, ordered an immediate investigation. He asked for updates on how the injured were doing and for a detailed written report on the circumstances of the crash. He also called for steps to head off similar accidents on the international highway.
Not the first this season
The Al-Abr crash follows several others on Yemen’s long-distance roads in recent months.
On February 24, a passenger bus ran into a heavy cargo truck in Al-Mahfad district of Abyan Governorate. Twelve people died, among them a child and a woman. Both vehicles caught fire. The passengers were reportedly on their way to Saudi Arabia for Umrah.
Last year, on November 5, 15 travelers were killed on Al-Arqoub pass, also in Abyan, when a bus run by Saqr Al-Hijaz company collided with a passenger car. Most of the bodies were charred.
An October 20 crash on the international highway linking Hadramout and Marib claimed 14 lives. A passenger bus hit a fuel tanker there, and both burned.
With the accidents piling up, calls are growing for better upkeep of the international roads. Some want emergency medical centers and civil defense services stationed along long-distance routes to cut the death toll.
