MBC presenter injured in Dubai road crash

A well-known TV presenter working for the Saudi-owned Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) TV channel was seriously injured while her driver was killed in a road accident on Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai on Wednesday.

Shahd Ballan, 27, has just left Dubai’s Media City and was heading for Abu Dhabi when her car tyre was punctured, forcing her driver to stop on the hard shoulder.

Another car hit her vehicle from behind before a third car banged into the two vehicles. A fourth car which was moving at high speed rammed into Shahd’s vehicle, killing the driver and seriously injuring the TV presenter and news reader.

Police said Shahd was rushed to hospital, where 10 doctors performed an operation on her to save her life before she was admitted to the intensive care unit.

Newspapers quoted doctors as saying Shahd suffered from fractures on various parts of her body and that she would remain in the ICU for a while.

Shahd had worked for Dubai’s state-run Dubai TV before moving to MBC channel 1 as a presenter and news reader in 2013.

Born in the Southern Syrian town of Suwaida, Shahd graduated from the American University in Dubai in 2011 and joined Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Media College, where she graduated in film direction.

Shahd’s father is the cousin of the late popular singer Fahd Ballan.