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Al-Ahram Weekly 15 - 21 April 1999 Issue No. 425 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 15 - 21 April 1999 Issue No. 425
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Deadly negligence on the tracks
By Jailan Halawi
photo: Medhat Abdel-Meguid
Train no. 498 had pulled out of the Sherbin station on Saturday heading northwest to the nearby town of Bilqas when it collided with train no. 507, coming from Bilqas in the Delta province of Daqahliya. Two people, a labourer and an office employee, were found dead on the spot, said Mohamed El-Asimi, the district's top health ministry official. Rescue workers searching the wreckage later found the body of a teenager whom witnesses described as a street vendor.
The accident occurred at around 5.45pm three kilometres outside the town of Sherbin, which is located about 150 kilometres north of Cairo, the interior ministry said in a statement.
As a result of the collision, the two locomotives caught fire, one train crashed into a nearby field and several cars of the other train overturned.
The two third-class trains were packed with workers returning home in the early evening rush hour. Many passengers, as well as the drivers of both trains and their assistants, jumped off to safety but the driver of train 498 suffered heavy burns. A preliminary investigation showed the accident was caused by a number of failures: a telephone network linking rail stations was not working, one train did not have a signal man aboard as required in rural areas and the controlling track lights did not hold either train back.
According to Dr Hamdi El-Gohari, director of Sherbin hospital, most of the injured suffered broken bones and at least five sustained burns. Apart from seven who are in serious condition, most of the injured have been discharged from hospital or will be discharged soon.
Police said they arrested Ahmed Saad Abdel-Meguid, driver of train 507, and were questioning him to determine the reasons behind the disaster. He could face charges of negligence that resulted in manslaughter.
Wrapped in bandages for heavy burns, Mohamed Amin Sayed Ahmed, driver of train 498, recounted from his bed at Sherbin hospital how the accident occurred. "I had permission from the control room in Sherbin to continue on the line. The fault was in Binsandella station, which should have stopped the other train," he said.
By the time he saw the other train coming head-on, Ahmed said it was too late to stop. "About 30-50 metres on, I saw the other train coming. I tried to hit the brakes, but it was too late. The engine and the first passenger car slipped off the line. The engine caught fire. I managed to break the window and jumped out," he said.
Aziza Ali Mohamed, one of the injured passengers, was on her way to Bilqas hospital to visit her niece when the accident occurred. "Everything happened so fast," she said. "I heard the sound of an explosion and woke up to find myself in Sherbin hospital."
Several ambulances, first aid vans and fire trucks rushed to the scene. Hospitals in the Daqahliya province were put on the alert. The ministers of health, rural development and transport, as well as the governor of Daqahliya also rushed to the scene.
The nation is still smarting from a harrowing train accident in October which killed 48 people. Three railway employees were later blamed by an inquiry commission for the crash, which occurred when an assistant driver shut down the automatic brake system. The train was unable to slow down when it swerved on to a secondary line to allow a faster train to pass and it then derailed, ploughing into the Kafr El-Dawwar station, also in the northern Delta.
The nation's worst train disaster occurred in December 1995 when 75 people were killed and 150 injured about 20 kilometres north of Cairo.
