One dead, five injured in car accident in Erbil province

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A car accident on Koya-Erbil road late Thursday led to the death of a passenger and the injury of five others, an official told Rudaw.

The accident took place between a Toyota Camry and a Land Cruiser after the driver of the former lost control of the vehicle, Koya traffic police spokesperson Sangar Saeed told Rudaw. 

He added that the Land Cruiser belonged to Rahel Faraidum, Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) deputy health minister. Faraidum was not in the vehicle when the incident took place but his wife and child were injured. 

Sherwan Jalal, deputy head of Koya health directorate, told Rudaw that the mother of the Toyota Camry driver died and five other people were injured. Some have been hospitalized in Erbil. 

Car accidents are a common occurrence in the Kurdistan Region in comparison to many countries. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report from 2018, road traffic injuries were the leading killer of people aged five to 29 globally, with an estimated rate of traffic fatalities per 100,00 population in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of 20.7% in 2016.

Over 600 people were killed in traffic accidents across the Kurdistan Region in 2021, with more than seven thousand injured, the spokesperson for the Region's traffic department told Rudaw in January. 

A car accident took place between a pickup vehicle and a minibus carrying students on Koya-Ranya highway on May 6. Both drivers and 14 students were injured. 

Reporting by Hemin Baban and Horvan Rafaat