An image of the median struck by Rassi's car circulating on social media in the aftermath of the crash.
BEIRUT — The death early Saturday of Lebanese singer George Al Rassi refocused attention on a perennial problem in Lebanon that is rarely prioritized — the high rate of death and injury on the country’s roads.
Rassi was returning from a performance in Syria when his car struck an apparently un-signposted concrete barrier placed in the median of the Beirut-Damascus highway, killing him and his colleague Zina al-Murabi.
Rassi’s sister, actress Nadine Al Rassi, expressed outrage in local media, asking, “Is it conceivable that there is a concrete block in the middle of the highway, and there is no light or any evidence of its existence?”
“When there is a state, tell me so I can sue it,” she added.
The wreckage of Rassi's vehicle following the fatal road collision. (Credit: NNA)
YASA, a local traffic safety NGO, called on the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to install plastic barriers to cushion impacts against concrete medians. The absence of such safety devices played “a major role” in the two deaths, the NGO claimed.
YASA also pointed out that the same concrete barrier killed three people in a 2016 collision and nothing was done to install warning signs or protective barriers.
In a television interview on Monday, the day of Rassi’s televised funeral, caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi called on citizens to abide by traffic safety rules. The Interior Ministry oversees the country’s law enforcement agencies, including those responsible for traffic safety. Traffic laws are widely flouted in Lebanon.
Since the country’s economic crisis began in October 2019, an average of 32 people have been killed each month on the country’s roads, a recent L’Orient Today analysis found. This is lower than the 43 deaths per month average in the period immediately prior to the crisis, but crashes in Lebanon have become, on average, more deadly than before.
Traffic incidents are the number one cause of unintentional injury and death in the country.