Egypt Reports Two Train Accidents within 24 hours

Dozens were injured in a train crash in Alexandria, less than 24 hours after another train accident killed two and injured six Egyptians in Cairo.

The Egyptian prosecution is investigating the circumstances of the two accidents.

The Railways Authority said in a statement that the Alexandria-Cairo train crashed with a moving tractor number 3219 while it was leaving platform 8 at the Alexandria Station.

The train driver and his assistant were apprehended and transferred to public prosecution.

The ministry of health said that 40 persons were injured in the accident.

The Authority also announced on Monday that a train in a Cairo suburb collided with two buses parked dangerously close to the train tracks. The driver was unable to stop the train, which led to a collision with one of the buses, killing two and injuring six others.

During April and March, Egypt witnessed several train accidents that killed and injured several persons. The Cairo-Mansoura train accident resulted in 23 deaths and 139 injuries, and in Minya al-Qamh a train derailed killing 14 people.

In April, Two trains collided in Sohag in Upper Egypt, killing 20 people and injuring about two hundred others. The Public Prosecution charged railway employees and drivers with “negligence and drug abuse”, as part of efforts to uncover the circumstances of the accident.

The Public Prosecutor, Counselor Hamada El-Sawi, ordered an urgent investigation into the incident of a train collision with two buses in Helwan.

Meanwhile, Head of Parliament’s Transport Committee MP Alaa Abed said that the committee is following up with the Ministry of Transportation to uncover the details of the accidents.

The Chairman added that the committee is awaiting technical reports to identify the causes of the two accidents, noting that it will hold an urgent meeting to discuss the incidents while taking the necessary measures.

He asserted that if the investigations of the public prosecution proved that the collisions were caused by human error, the committee will demand severe punishments.

Abed praised the state agencies that helped in solving most of the problems in record time and the speedy response in transporting the injured to hospitals.

He also lauded the security officials and local development agencies for removing the rubble in record time.