Two Emirati nationals lost their lives, and three others sustained injuries in a car accident in Saudi Arabia, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) announced on Friday.
MoFA, with support from the National Search and Rescue Centre of the National Guard, facilitated an air ambulance mission to bring the injured individuals back to the UAE. The three were initially treated at King Khalid Hospital in Hail before being airlifted to Sheikh Khalifa Medical City Hospital for further care. The deceased were also repatriated to the UAE.
In a WAM report, the ministry expressed gratitude to Saudi authorities for their cooperation, which ensured the smooth execution of the air medical evacuation and the repatriation process.
This tragic incident highlights the growing concern over road safety. According to a recent survey by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, road accidents are perceived as the top safety threat in the UAE, cited by 28% of respondents. This far surpasses concerns about economic issues, which ranked second at 13%.
The accident is the latest in a series of fatal road incidents involving UAE residents in Saudi Arabia. In August, a Jordanian father and his four children died in a crash on the Makkah-Riyadh road, and in July, five lives were lost in a collision on the Al Batha-Haradh highway.
