By Irfan Mohammed
Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — Eid holidays have turned into tragedies for some families with members desperate to reach their destinations falling victims to deadly road accidents.
The emergency medical team of King Abdullah Medical Complex in Jeddah said it received more than 600 emergency cases during the holidays. A majority of the accidents were caused by speeding.
Adding to the gloom is the difficulties faced by the families of dead expatriates to take the mortal remains of their loved ones to be buried close to home.
An Indian family traveling from Jeddah to Dammam for Eid holidays was killed in an accident at Zulm on Taif-Riyadh highway on Wednesday.
Reshma Jabeen and her children were travelling to Dammam in a car driven by her brother Syed Khaja Aliuddin when they met with the accident.
Reshma and Aliuddin and his four-year old daughter Afsheen Ali were killed on the spot. Rehana, Aliuddin's wife, was seriously injured and shifted to a hospital in Taif where she is being treated in the ICU. Reshma's son Zain was also shifted to the Taif hospital but later discharged, said family sources. Other family members were receiving treatment at a general hospital in Zulm.
All the victims hailed from Hyderabad in India. Reshma was the wife of Mohammed Khaja Ghouse Moinuddin who works in Dallah Trane Company in Jeddah.
Aliuddin came to celebrate Eid in Jeddah along with his family from Dammam where he worked. After Eid, he insisted his sister and her children join his family on their way back to Dammam to spend a few days with them.
A Pakistani expatriate family travelling on Riyadh highway met with an accident near Tubra. One person was killed on the spot and three children and four adults were injured, according to Saudi Red Crescent sources.
In another accident on Riyadh highway, a Sudanese couple were killed near Bani Saad.
Six members of a Pakistani family who were killed in an accident on Madinah highway on Tuesday were buried in Rabigh Thursday morning. They included Rana Javeed Mahmoud, hailing from Lahore in Pakistan, and his daughter Atifa Javeed who worked as a pediatrician at Naseem Jeddah Polyclinic. Rana Javeed was a prominent community member who operated a heavy equipment rental business in the city.
