Thirteen people died and eight injured in a spectacular collision on Sunday between a passenger coach and a truck in northwestern Algeria, emergency services said.
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The accident occurred at a place called Oued Khebaza, in the wilaya (prefecture) of Naâma (650 km southwest of Algiers), civil protection said in a statement on its Facebook page. The bus served the route between the towns of Sidi Bel Abbes and Boussemghoune. A video broadcast by several media shows a bus whose front part is completely sunk while the truck has lost its trailer which overturned on the road.
The eight injured were evacuated to a local hospital.
The National Gendarmerie has opened an investigation to determine the causes of this accident, according to the official APS agency.
President Abdelmajid Tebboune presented "his condolences to the families" and "his wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured".
“What a painful ordeal for Algeria to lose its children in disastrous accidents, such as the one that occurred at Oued Khebaza in Naâma,” he tweeted.
The Covid effect
Algerian roads are considered to be among the most dangerous in the region.
The speed of motorists, including public transport drivers, is the main cause of road accidents in Algeria, according to the National Road Safety Delegation, a government agency.
In 2020, however, due to travel restrictions imposed to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, traffic accidents decreased by 13.16% compared to 2019, according to the government body. Algeria recorded nearly 19,000 road accidents in 2020, which killed 2,844, against 22,507 accidents that killed 3,275 in 2019. The number of accidents recorded in 2020 was the lowest since 1970 and the number of lowest deaths since 1975, according to the delegation.