An increase in the number of road traffic accidents over the past week has coincided with an influx of GCC nationals visiting Bahrain to celebrate Eid, according to official figures.

Just yesterday (July 23) a car was left on its roof on Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Highway following a two-car crash at around 11.30am, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Fortunately, the car’s occupants were reported to have only sustained minor injuries.

“The two cars involved in the crash were seriously damaged,” an Interior Ministry official told the GDN.

“Minor injuries have been reported but there are no further details.”

Yesterday’s crash follows a spate of accidents on Wednesday that left two dead and three seriously injured.

The GDN reported that a Thai national and an unidentified Asian pedestrian were among those killed in two separate accidents.

Another crash that day saw a vehicle catch fire at the Bahrain Bay road junction near the Diplomatic Area, leaving one Saudi national in hospital with burns to his back.

“It happened at 6pm on King Faisal Highway between two cars and one caught fire,” said an Interior Ministry official.

“The first car with Saudi number plates was gutted and the Saudi national sustained serious back burns, while the other two sustained minor burns and all of them were referred to King Hamad University Hospital.

“The second car, also with Saudi number plates, was driven by an Indian who sustained minor injuries and was referred to Salmaniya Medical Complex.”

The General Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Residence Affairs reported yesterday that 311,297 people had entered Bahrain between July 16 and 22.

That is 50,000 more than the number of people who visited during last Eid, when 240,702 visitors were recorded.

“Of these 311,297,  267,911 arrived from Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries via the King Fahad Causeway, 42,912 through Bahrain International Airport and 474 through ports,” said the directorate in a statement.

Other road traffic accidents this week have included one on Monday, when an Asian driver escaped uninjured after his car overturned on Waley Al Ahd Highway in Hamad Town, while on Sunday a 34-year-old Yemeni man died in a three-car crash on Shaikh Isa bin Salman Highway.

His wife and three children were admitted to hospital with multiple injures.

On Saturday a Bahraini suffered multiple injuries in an accident on Budaiya Highway after he lost control of his vehicle near Shakhoora at around 6.30am and smashed into a set of traffic lights and a number of parked vehicles. - Reuters