Six family members die in Aqaba road accident

AMMAN — Six people, all from the same family, were killed and one person injured in a tragic accident on the back road highway near Aqaba governorate, traffic officials said.

The accident is the second to claim a high number of lives in Jordan in less than 24 hours.

On Monday, six people, including four female university students, were killed when their vehicle was crushed by a water tanker near the Khalidieh Bridge in Mafraq Governorate.

Tuesday's accident involved a trailer and a mini-bus that was carrying six people from the same family, a senior traffic official told The Jordan Times.

“All the bus passengers were killed because of the strong impact, while the trailer driver was injured,” the senior traffic official said.

A committee comprising traffic officials and experts was formed to investigate the cause of the accident, a second source told The Jordan Times.

Meanwhile, a Civil Defence Department official noted that rescue units transported the injured to nearby hospitals and the deceased to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine for a routine government autopsy.

According to Public Security Department statistics, there were 150,226 road accidents in 2017, resulting in 685 deaths and 16,246 injuries, including 1,495 severe cases.