The
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Death toll rises to 44 in train crash
Egypt -- The death toll from a train crash in
northern Egypt rose to 44 on Thursday, a day after
the country's worst rail disaster in almost two
years, hospital sources said.
Forty people were also injured after a truck slammed into vehicles
including a car and a bus waiting at the crossing,
pushing them onto the tracks, security sources said.
The train ploughed into the vehicles seconds later.
The accident happened MENA quoted officials as saying the truck's
brakes had failed.
The force of the impact flipped two of the train's carriages over
and unhitched three more, a security source added.
MENA said the dead and injured had been transferred to a number of
local hospitals.
State news agency MENA said seven of the dead
were Libyans. Nineteen had not yet been identified.
Egyptian authorities had dispatched a team of
experts to investigate the causes of the crash, MENA
added.
Authorities
were still trying to clear the track, a day after a
truck ploughed into traffic at a closed level
crossing, pushing a bus, truck and several cars into
the path of a passenger train, the official said.
The crash was the latest in a series of
transport disasters in Egypt, most of which have
been blamed on negligence and poor maintenance.
Reckless driving, lax traffic rules and poor road
conditions cause many road crashes in Egypt. A
series of road and rail accidents over the past few years triggered a public outcry over
the government's handling of road and transport
safety.
Two years ago, a train crash killed 58 people
and injured scores more in the Nile Delta town of
Qalyoub, north of Cairo.
In 2002, 360 people were killed when fire ripped
through seven carriages of a crowded passenger
train.
Egyptian roads are among the most dangerous in
the world. Around 6,000 people are killed 30,000
injured in traffic accidents each year, according to
transport ministry figures.
