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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The driver of the 18-wheeler truck that struck the vehicle of Rudaw’s Baghdad Bureau Chief Halkawt Aziz (1989 - 2026), leading to his passing, is “fully responsible” for the accident, a preliminary traffic police investigation revealed, attributing the incident to the driver’s losing control of the vehicle due to fatigue.
Colonel Muhannad Fawzi, director of media at Diwaniyah province’s traffic directorate, told Rudaw that “the tragic incident took place on a highway that passes through the southern province,” which Aziz was on while en route from the Iraqi capital Baghdad to the southernmost Basra province on Monday afternoon.
He added that the driver, identified as Mohammed Abd Khader Aidan, was “100 percent negligent and lost control of the vehicle due to fatigue, exhaustion, and drowsiness.” The investigation thus attributed “full responsibility for the crash to the driver.”
Meanwhile, Amer al-Rokabi, spokesperson for Diwaniyah Police Command, stated that the driver at fault “remains in our custody,” adding that “Aziz’s family has yet to file a formal complaint against him.”
“An investigating judge has requested a complaint from the family; otherwise, the driver could be released on bail pending trial,” Rokabi explained, noting that if the family of the deceased files a complaint, “he could face up to six months in prison and financial penalties related to damages,” and “a prison sentence of up to seven years under Iraqi law.”
In a Wednesday interview with Rudaw, Colonel Haider Shakir, director of media for Iraq’s General Traffic Directorate, further detailed that “the truck first moved onto the roadside shoulder, then lost its lane and completely blocked the road after colliding with the central barrier, leading to the crash between the two vehicles.”
Khatab Ajami, Aziz’s cameraman who was in the same vehicle at the time of the accident, said the incident “happened in a split second. I called out his name, Halkawt, Halkawt… but he did not respond,” Ajami said, adding, “I swiftly transferred him to the hospital, but fate was faster than I was.”
Aziz, 36, passed away on Monday after succumbing to critical injuries. He is survived by his wife and two sons, as well as his parents and six siblings.
