One of the victims of the horrific crash that shut down Sydney has been identified.
Truck driver Jamal Choukri, 44, was one of two drivers who died in the multi-vehicle crash on the Sydney Harbor Bridge on Thursday.
Mr Choukri had moved from Morocco to Australia six years ago and was there to work in botany.
Choukri was driving in the southbound lanes when a 51-year-old man driving a blue Hyundai i30 crossed from the northbound lanes and into the path of oncoming traffic.
The driver of the Hyundai collided with a Mercedes before hitting Mr Choukri’s Hyundai Accent, tragically killing the 51-year-old man and Mr Choukri on impact.
Following the double fatality, calls are growing for a review of the reversible lane system on the Sydney Harbor Bridge, after two men died after crashing on the infamous “suicide lane”.
In the vision of the horrific accident, a blue Hyundai i30 is seen traveling in the outside northbound lane swerving into oncoming traffic in the inside southbound lane.
The car crashed into Shukri’s white Hyundai Accent around 1:30 pm on Thursday, causing two deaths and injuries to several other people, including an expectant mother.
Truck driver Jamal Choukri, 44, (pictured) died in a multi-vehicle crash on the Sydney Harbor Bridge on Thursday.
Choukri (pictured) moved to Australia from Morocco six years ago to start a new life.
A growing chorus of Australians is questioning the safety of the bridge’s reversible lane system, which alters the flow of northbound and southbound traffic.
The direction of lane four, better known to Sydneysiders as the “death” or “suicide” lane, typically reverses after rush hour traffic each morning before returning to the northbound lanes on the late.
A green mark or a red cross on the lanes indicates which ones can be used; However, dozens of motorists said they made sure to avoid the infamous “death lane.”
‘How tragic. I drive in that lane regularly. I hate it. They call it ‘suicide lane’ for obvious reasons. May those poor people rest in peace,” one person wrote online.
“The configuration of the Harbor Bridge has always been very dangerous with the proximity of oncoming traffic in the center lanes,” a second shared.
Red crosses and green markings (circled in red) indicate which lanes are available to drivers traveling north and southbound on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
A blue Hyundia i30 is seen crossing into the southbound lane in footage of the fatal crash.
‘A third wrote: ‘I hate those lanes on the bridge. Every time I drive, I stay in the outside lane, I never use the inside lane, I always think it’s an accident waiting to happen and today it happened tragically.”
Many agreed that safety barriers or concrete bollards needed to be installed on the bridge between northbound and southbound traffic.
Others wanted to eliminate the reversible lane system entirely.
“Various lanes without a concrete physical barrier like those on Victorian roads are simply dangerous,” one woman wrote.
‘That’s why these roads are so stupid. Do you really trust that people drive at highway speeds with no median and lanes that change direction so you have to look at the lights above the road? said another in reference to the tick and cross system.
Crews arrived at the scene and found a man dead in the rubble.
The driver of another vehicle had to be freed from the twisted metal by firefighters, before dying a short time later.
Cleanups and investigations on the bridge paralyzed traffic throughout the city on Thursday.
Acting City of Sydney Superintendent Clayton McDonald said it appeared a vehicle traveling northbound veered “for some unknown reason” into the southbound lanes, causing a first collision and then several more collisions.
All traffic on the southbound bridge was stopped and only one northbound lane remained open, causing traffic chaos in the city Thursday afternoon.
Police were working to notify next of kin of the two men who died in the crash and both have not yet been formally identified.
“A police investigation into Thursday’s double fatal accident on the Sydney Harbor Bridge is underway and Transport for NSW will consider its findings,” a Transport for New South Wales spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
‘In 2022, Transport installed clearer signs for motorists on the Bridge following a speed zone and review of signage.
‘The Sydney Harbor Bridge is not wide enough to accommodate a moving barrier system and preserve all lanes on what is Sydney’s most important traffic route.
‘In 2015, following a serious collision, consideration was given to using a racket machine, similar to that used on Victoria Road in Drummoyne, to move the barrier. However, it was deemed unsuitable as it would require one lane to be removed from the bridge, reducing traffic capacity by 15 percent.