Crash blocks Abu Dhabi intersection

Three people were taken to hospital after four cars were involved in a collision at the corner of 15th Street and Airport Road.

Police clean up the scene of an accident, involving multiple cars at the corner of 15th Street and Airport Road in Abu Dhabi.

Traffic police blamed recklessness and speeding on a four-car crash this afternoon that led to three people being taken to hospital. None of the injuries were considered life-threatening and the victims were being treated at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, police on the scene said. Seatbelts likely saved lives in the incident, according to Mohammed Salah, an Abu Dhabi traffic investigator at the scene. "You can see that without seatbelts, they will go outside the car and damage the glass," he said. "They were wearing them so, of course, it saved them." The collision, which occurred at the intersection of Airport Road and 15th Street at about 12.30pm, snarled traffic for nearly an hour at the crossing. A silver Toyota sport utility vehicle heading east on Airport Road had mounted the central reservation and collided with traffic from the opposite side. A black Lexus appeared to have spun and settled until it was facing the SUV in the same lane. Both cars were severely damaged, with the black sedan losing a front tyre and spilling fuel onto the road. On the other side of the central reservation, the windshield of a white Toyota Camry was smashed through and some blood had spattered on the hood and side door. All of the airbags appeared to have deployed. The fourth driver, Abdul Monem Salem, 24, was completely unharmed although his blue Mercedes was seriously damaged in the front wheel after rear-ending the white Camry. "Some people were taken away but everybody's okay," Mr Salem said, before leaving to file an accident report with police. Traffic investigators on the scene did not speculate on how the accident occurred or who was at fault, as the accident is still under investigation, but they said speed was likely a factor. "We have four cars involved," added Mr Salah. "Somebody crossed the signal, and somebody comes and speeds too much and so he hit a car here, and then [another car] goes and that makes another two cars hit." Traffic at the intersection began to flow again by about 1.30pm, after police dumped sand onto the road to cover the spilled fuel.