Ten people, seven Kuwaitis and three Indonesians, were killed and two were injured when their speeding van blew a tire and crashed near Umreqaiba village south of Hafr Al-Baten, police said. The Kuwaiti family was heading to Makkah to perform Umrah and spend their summer vacation in one of the Kingdom's summer resorts when the tire burst, the driver lost control and the van overturned, according to police in Hafr Al-Baten. Director of Roads Security Captain Abdullah Anad Al-Shmeri said four women, three children and three Indonesian maids were killed. A man and his son were injured. They were rushed to the Armed Forces Hospital at King Khaled Base in Hafr Al-Baten, he added. Road-security police investigated the incident while teams from the Saudi Red Crescent and traffic police rushed to the scene, Al-Shmeri said. In another accident in the region, Mahail Police reported that a reckless driver on Abha Highway caused a six-car crash that injured 10 people. The injured were rushed to Mahial General Hospital, police said. An eyewitness said a driver tried to overtake another car and caused the accident. A report released last year by the Interior Ministry's traffic safety department said that 6,485 people were killed in road accidents in Saudi Arabia in 2008. Five Filipinos, including four members of a family, died in a horrific accident in Al-Ahsa last Wednesday. One survived the accident and is now confined at the King Fahd Hospital in Al-Ahsa. The victims were on their way to the King Fahd International Airport in Dammam to take Joyce Demetillo Hasan and her son Aldwin who were departing that night for their annual vacation to the Philippines when the accident happened, according to Philippine labor attaché David Des T. Dicang who is now closely monitoring the case.
