Lebanese man dies in accident waiting in gas station queue

A man killed in a queue at a gas station on Saturday was the latest victim of the unprecedented crisis in Lebanon.

Mahmoud Delbani, a 27-year-old Lebanese citizen, was waiting to fill his car with gasoline at 2.30am when an inattentive truck driver crashed into several vehicles lined up at the Coral Petrol Station on the Beirut-South Lebanon highway.

Three people were also injured in the accident.

For more than two months the deteriorating economic crisis has caused enormous fuel shortages in Lebanon, with queues kilometers long outside gas stations leading to unprecedented congestion on roads and horrific accidents.

The lines at stations have become known as ‘the queues of humiliation and shame’ due to the long hours that drivers spend waiting to fill their cars.

Local media reported that the 27-year-old man had been looking forward to catching up with his friends after filling his car with fuel.
Hussein, a friend of Delbani from Tyre, in southern Lebanon, said: “He left us too early. What a tragically unexpected and humiliating end to such a loveable and smiley character. I cannot accept what happened! Why did he have to leave that way?”

Tarek, another friend of Delbani, mourned him on Facebook, writing “RIP Mahmoud you will be missed … too early dear but our destiny in Lebanon … innocent people die and stupid politicians have a long life…”

The traffic police have reported a number of recent accidents in petrol queues.

Petrol stations have been running low on subsidized petrol for months, but shortages worsened in June and July as people’s fears of rationing and shortages intensified, leading to a large number of petrol station closures.

A number of fights, heated arguments and shootings have taken place and a petrol station owner was shot dead by an angry customer in north Lebanon.