Emirati mother and son and Saudi woman killed in Oman horror crash

Nine others hurt in head-on three-car collision in Adam province.

The aftermath of the fatal crash in Oman. Courtesy Royal Oman Police

An Emirati mother and son and a Saudi woman were killed in a head-on car crash in Oman on Tuesday night.

Three families - one Emirati, one Omani and one Saudi - in three cars were involved in the crash on the one-lane road to Salalah, in Qarn Al Alam, Adam province, at about 8pm.

The Emirati mother was named as Zainab Al Mulla and her son Khaled Qai. They were due to be laid to rest at Al Qusais Cemetery in Dubai on Wednesday night.

Her other four children received minor and non-life-threatening injuries, as did the eight other Saudis in their car and the two Omanis in their car, according to Royal Oman Police.

It is believed that the driver of the Saudi-plate car was trying to overtake a lorry and hit the UAE car head-on before the latter swerved and hit the Omani car, according to the Times of Oman.

Video shared on social media shows two cars in flames, one of which appears to be a Nissan Patrol.

> Read more: Road upgrade needed for often fatal journey to Salalah

Captain Mohammed Al Hashami, of Royal Oman Police, said: “The accident occurred when two vehicles collided head-on; one of them had an Emirati plate and the other Saudi.

“One of the vehicles then swerved after the accident and crashed into another Omani car.

“A male and a female were burnt to death in the Emirati car, while four children suffered from minor to moderate injuries.”

Witnesses said that the Saudi car was overtaking on the single-carriageway road.

“It was coming too fast and crashed into the other car. Both cars went into flames but the car of the Emiratis was pushed sideways to hit a third car parked on the road,” witness Khamis Al Adawi, told The National.

“Two vehicles were headed towards Salalah and one was headed back. There were two Omanis in the first car, nine Saudis in the second car and an Emirati mother and her five children in the third car,” a police officer told the Times of Oman.

“The Omani car was 200 metres behind and so they were not injured badly.

“The investigation shows that the third car [Emirati vehicle], which was headed south to north, collided with the other vehicle headed the opposite way. The Saudi Arabian lady who died was the grandmother of the driver.”

The injured were taken to Nizwa Hospital.

“The first case came in at about 11.30 in the evening. We received 12 of the injured and two expired bodies,” a hospital spokesman said.

Most of the injured were children, the oldest of which was about 17 and the youngest about 4, the spokesman added.

“The children are all in a stable condition. Both Emirati bodies have been transported back to their country,” he said.

Earlier this month, an Emirati man was killed in Oman while travelling to the southern city of Salalah. In June, two UAE nationals died in another road accident in central Oman.

Last year, 9 Emiratis were killed on the roads and 16 injured in different towns of the Sultanate.

*Additional reporting by Times of Oman 

**This article has been updated since publication to reflect that a mother and son were killed.