Illustration by Jaimee Lee Haddad.
Between January and May 2025, the Internal Security Forces recorded 162 road fatalities in Lebanon. In 2024, 443 lives were lost, compared to 439 in 2023. Drunk driving, phones, poor road and lighting conditions, speeding — any trip can, in an instant, turn into chaos. In early August, faced with a spike in deadly accidents this summer — 28 deaths between August 5 and 14 — Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar reactivated the Road Safety Committee. First responders, grieving drivers and survivors recount crashes old and recent, and tell L’Orient Today how their lives were turned upside down.‘I didn’t see him until he was on my hood’The shadow came out of nowhere. Or maybe it had been there all along, invisible on a highway with no lights.Maya was driving south from Beirut on May 30, 2023, when suddenly a shape appeared in the middle lane near...
Between January and May 2025, the Internal Security Forces recorded 162 road fatalities in Lebanon. In 2024, 443 lives were lost, compared to 439 in 2023. Drunk driving, phones, poor road and lighting conditions, speeding — any trip can, in an instant, turn into chaos. In early August, faced with a spike in deadly accidents this summer — 28 deaths between August 5 and 14 — Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar reactivated the Road Safety Committee. First responders, grieving drivers and survivors recount crashes old and recent, and tell L’Orient Today how their lives were turned upside down.‘I didn’t see him until he was on my hood’The shadow came out of nowhere. Or maybe it had been there all along, invisible on a highway with no lights.Maya was driving south from Beirut on May 30, 2023, when suddenly a shape appeared in the...
