Egypt: Train crashes into concrete leaving more than 100 injured
Over 100 people were wounded when a train crashed into concrete south of Cairo in the early hours of 11 February, according to Al-Ahram state media. Tens of ambulances were rushed to the scene to treat the wounded, however, local news reports said that injuries were minimal. The train was headed from Aswan to the capital Cairo. The train collided with a concrete block which led it to derail, lifting the front of one of the carriages several metres into the air.
"In less than a minute the train crashed. We ran outside and found it in the storage area. This is evidence that he was driving at high speed. He was set to arrive at the platform at 1.30am. He should park here. That means if he would have not crashed here, he would not have time to park at the platform," said Salah Mahmoud, who was near the scene at the time of the crash.
Another eyewitness to the direct aftermath also said the train appeared to have driven at a higher speed than usual. "He was driving at an unexpectedly high speed. He was about to arrive in a storage area where he should decrease his speed. He wasn't driving on a main railroad, it was a storage rail which means he will park soon. We saw the train driving fast and collide with this rock. He even turned the rock around and now the train is lying on the rock," said local man Mahmoud Islam.
Egypt's roads and railways have a poor safety record and Egyptians have long complained that governments have failed to enforce basic safeguards. In early 2015, a crash between a train and a bus carrying school children north east of Cairo killed at least seven people while 50 people, mostly children, were killed when a train slammed into a school bus as it crossed the tracks at a rail crossing south of Cairo in 2012.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.