Seven members of a single Lebanese family lost their lives in a horrific traffic accident in the Lebanese town of Arsal, where a truck carrying about 40 tons of rocks swept several cars away.

"The least that can be said about the accident is that it is catastrophic, as no one remained from the Fleity family," the father, wife, their three sons, a daughter, and her husband, according to the mayor of Arsal, Basil Al-Hujairi.

Al-Hujairi explained to "Alhurra" website that "the people of Arsal are accustomed at this time (the time of the accident) to returning from the cherry orchards they own, so the Fleity family may have been returning from their orchard, and as soon as they reached the Wadi Atta area, death was waiting for them after the truck collided with their vehicle from behind, and since the road is sloping, the truck dragged the Fleity car several meters before hitting a number of cars, in addition to the walls of a house, then it started to burn."

The members of the Fleity family breathed their last immediately, while the truck driver was injured, as Al-Hujairi said, "with fractures and burns that required his transfer to Al-Jaaitawi Hospital." Regarding what was circulated about the death of the truck driver’s son in the accident, Al-Hujairi responded, "Some believed that the body of one of Youssef’s sons belonged to the driver’s son, but what I learned is that no one was with him."

Until now, it cannot be confirmed, according to the mayor, whether the accident was caused by "improper behavior by the driver or a sudden malfunction of his vehicle."

The local official called on truck drivers to inspect their vehicles continuously to ensure their safety, and pointed out that the authorities will close the road where the accident occurred, "since its steep slope pushes drivers to press the brakes of their vehicles, which may cause them to malfunction."

After the accident, the "Yaza" Association called for an investigation to find out the real reasons that led to this massacre," and urged "the Internal Security Forces leadership to encourage officers and members of the Internal Security Forces to raise awareness about traffic safety to preserve people's lives."

The Arsal accident occurred on the day Lebanon was buzzing with the news of the arrest of an officer in the Internal Security Forces, due to a post in which he criticized the work of the traffic control room, pointing to the disasters witnessed on Lebanon’s roads. He wrote on his social media account that "the death of 5 people daily in a country with a population of 6 million means we lose 30 people per 100,000 population, which means we top the world countries in the number of deaths from traffic collisions."

The arrest of the officer prompted traffic safety expert Kamel Ibrahim to comment on the case in a tweet, in which he confirmed that "for no time has the safety of people on the roads been a priority for the Internal Security Forces except through media reports and a number of checkpoints to enforce the law depending on the season. No planning, no law enforcement, and shifting responsibilities with other administrations."

Ibrahim added, "(An achievement) the arrest of (the officer) in a collapsing country, instead of taking responsibility, implementing plans, and drawing clear objectives to protect people amidst the miserable state of the country, and benefiting from the existing expertise and studies despite limited capabilities; it is not permissible for people’s safety on the road to remain a secondary issue. People’s safety is an ongoing struggle."