Infant dies, 23 injured in UAE bus accident

A baby boy died and 23 people were injured after a horror bus crash in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Wednesday morning.

Kalba Police Station received a call about the accident around 7am. Within minutes, police officials and ambulances arrived at the accident site and the injured passengers were rushed to Kalba Hospital.

Sharjah Police has urged all drivers to abide by traffic rules and to pay total attention while driving on streets with curves and slopes in order to avoid loss of life and property.

The bus driver – who is the father of the dead baby boy – was unable to stop the bus rolling over after it careered out of control and flipped onto its side.

His one-year-old son died and his wife lost a hand in the tragic accident, the latest in a series of tour bus crashes to claim the lives of Omanis.

The mother of the infant was undergoing surgery in hospital, according to the relatives.

The injured are being treated at Kalba Hospital near Al Shariqah (Sharjah), UAE, around 200 kilometres from the Oman

Some passengers had to be urgently ferried to specialised burns units in the Sultanate for treatment after the bus flipped over onto its side and burst into flames.

According to Oman Embassy officials in the UAE, three people are in critical condition.

An official from the embassy headed to Kalba Hospital to assess the injured and decide if they can be transferred to the Sultanate’s hospitals.

There was a sudden and catastrophic loss of control of the bus, Al Shariqah police confirmed via their twitter account.

The bus caught fire following the deadly crash, in the early hours of yesterday.

According to the victims’ relatives, the deceased child was around one-year-old and he was the son of the bus driver.

The casualties include severe burns and broken bones, according to the relatives.

Al Shariqah police said they received the accident report at 7am on Wednesday and immediately dispatched rescue teams and paramedics.

A relative of the driver said the family was too upset to talk about the accident.

A spokesman for the Oman embassy in UAE said: “The information we have is that one child died and three were injured in critical situation and other injuries vary.

“The embassy sent an official to check on the health condition of the injured to decide on transporting them to Oman.”

Forty eight workers sustained injuries in a collision between two buses in Al Khaboura area at 3:30pm on Wednesday, a Royal Oman Police confirmed.

The vehicles belong to a company which is working on the Al Batinah expressway road project. The injured have been transferred to Al Kahboura health centre while three of them were sent to Sohar hospital for further treatment.