Runaway truck ignites 23-vehicle pileup in Fujairah, killing 14

A truck driver lost control on a highway at the entrance to Fujairah shortly before midnight on Wednesday, setting off a 23-vehicle collision and fire that killed at least 14 people and injured 30 in the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE Ministry of Interior announced the casualty figures on Thursday. Fujairah Police said the truck struck another vehicle, overturned and ran into a line of cars that had stopped because of slow-moving traffic ahead of them.

The impact ignited a fire on the overturned truck that spread quickly to the vehicles around it, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement. Civil defence and ambulance crews were sent to the road, where they put out the blaze and secured the highway. The wounded were driven to nearby hospitals while specialist teams stayed on to deal with the wreckage.

How the crash unfolded

The collision happened on Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Road, designated the E89, near the entrance to Fujairah, one of the emirates on the eastern side of the country. Police placed it at the emirate's border. Police put the time at shortly before midnight, and said traffic on that stretch was slow, with the vehicles the truck hit having already slowed or stopped.

The ministry's initial findings counted 18 cars and five trucks, 23 in all. It described those figures as preliminary. Police have not said how many people were travelling in the vehicles, or how many of the 23 were destroyed by the fire.

Authorities have not established why the truck driver lost control, and no findings on the cause of the collision have been announced.

Several government agencies are coordinating the response, the Ministry of Interior said, including the work of establishing the sequence of events that led to the collision. Emergency responders and specialist rescue teams remained at the scene after the fire was out, while officials assessed the aftermath and completed procedures there. Authorities described the crash as causing a heavy loss of life.

Specialist forensic and traffic teams have stayed at the site to clear the wreckage and finish examining it, and investigators are pursuing both legal and technical lines of inquiry, according to Fujairah Police. The force has not said how long that work will take.

Seven nationalities among the injured

Thirty people were injured and all of them were taken to hospitals near the crash site. Fifteen have since been discharged and 15 are still receiving treatment, Fujairah Police said. That leaves half of the wounded under medical care.

The injured are nationals of the UAE, Oman, India, Brazil, Pakistan, Jordan and Egypt, authorities said. That accounting covers the wounded only. Authorities did not say how many came from each country, and the Ministry of Interior has not published a comparable list for the 14 people killed.

Officials have not disclosed the severity of the injuries or the current condition of the 15 people who remain in hospital.

Some of those killed were Emirati nationals, police said, and people of other nationalities died as well. Several of the dead are being identified through DNA testing. Police have not said how many bodies require it.

The Indian Consulate in Dubai confirmed on Thursday that Indian citizens were among the dead. It said it had reached out to bereaved families and was working with local authorities to provide assistance and support. The consulate did not say how many Indian nationals were killed, and the UAE authorities have not given that figure either.

Crown prince attends a funeral

Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Sharqi, Crown Prince of Fujairah, performed funeral prayers for Ahmed Thani Juma Al Mujairdi, who died in the crash on Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Road, Gulf News reported. The crown prince joined worshippers and members of the community in praying for the dead man and offering their final respects. The time and place of the funeral were not given.

Apart from Al Mujairdi, no one killed in the collision has been publicly named, and the ministry has not said when identification will be finished.

The Ministry of Interior and Fujairah Police extended condolences to the families of those killed and wished the injured a full recovery. Neither statement named any of the victims.

Officials urged motorists to observe speed limits and to keep safe following distances, especially when approaching congested or slow-moving traffic. They did not say whether either factor played a part in the Fujairah crash, and the police account of the sequence did not include a speed for the truck.

What remains unknown

Fujairah Police have not said whether the truck driver was among the dead or the injured. No arrests or charges have been announced, and neither the police nor the ministry has said what the truck was carrying or where it had been travelling from. No date has been set for the end of the investigation.

A separate crash the same night

Three members of an Indian family from Kerala, 21-year-old twins and their 3-year-old nephew, died the same night in a separate crash when their car hit a truck at about 10:45 p.m., according to a Fujairah Police report seen by Khaleej Times.

The Ministry of Interior asked the public to be careful about sharing information on the crash and to rely on official government channels rather than unconfirmed accounts. Fujairah Police made the same request of social media users, asking them not to circulate rumours or unverified claims.

The ministry said additional details would be made public after the relevant information had been confirmed. It did not say when that would be.

Authorities said they are continuing to investigate the crash and to support those affected. Officials have not described what that support involves, or said whether it extends to the families of foreign nationals who were killed. The emirate's police have kept teams at the scene while the work goes on.

An earlier crash in Dubai

Seven people were killed and nine injured in June when a minibus crashed into a stationary truck on Emirates Road in Dubai, News of Bahrain reported. Preliminary investigations indicated that the truck had stopped because of a technical fault.

The two crashes happened in different emirates, months apart, and the authorities have not linked them. In Fujairah, the police inquiry into Thursday's collision is continuing, and several of the dead have yet to be formally identified.