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Al-Ahram Weekly 5 - 11 August 1999 Issue No. 441 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 5 - 11 August 1999 Issue No. 441
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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VICTIMS AND CULPRITS: a church trip ends in tragedy, a racing car destroys a family in Cairo, an MP is killed near Hurgada
photo: Adel AnisSummer of tragedy
By Nevine Khalil and Shaden Shehab
hits the road
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Focus Interview Features Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters
With the soaring summer temperatures motorists across the country have taken to the roads in their thousands. But, whether they are using their cars to commute to work or to take a summer break, some of them seem to have taken a holiday from observing the basic rules of road safety. The past fortnight's road-accident deathtoll has reached 129 people killed, with 75 others badly wounded.
Kamal Abul-Khair
Three people were killed, and another 24 injured, when five vehicles collided on Saturday near the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada. The wounded included a group of nine Dutch tourists.
Member of Egyptian Parliament Kamal Abul-Kheir, his driver and a passenger were killed when their car collided head on with a small bus. Some 14 of the bus' passengers were injured, while members of a Dutch tour party travelling on a separate bus were wounded when it slammed into the wreckage of the other two vehicles. The domino effect continued, as a police car and a truck collided after trying to avoid the wreckage.
According to police, the driver of the first bus lost control of his vehicle while travelling on the Safaga-Hurghada highway in the opposite direction to the other five vehicles.
Abul-Kheir died while being rushed to hospital, while three of the injured Egyptians are in a critical condition. Eight of the tourists involved are reported to have left hospital and are continuing their journey on to Luxor.
In a separate incident on 27 July, the son of another parliamentarian was involved in an accident on Cairo's 6th October Bridge. Ibrahim Shaladem, the 18-year-old son of MP Salaheddin Shaladem, has been accused of reckless driving, which led to the death of a man and his infant son.
Driving home in the early hours of the morning, Ihab Abdel-Rahman, 31, and his two-year-old son Ahmed were killed instantly, and his wife Shahinaz Saleh seriously injured, when his car collided head on with Shaladem's, which was coming at them at high speed from the opposite direction. Another motorist was also injured. Saleh, who lost her husband and only son in the accident, remains hospitalised.
According to Shaladem, who was accompanied in the car by two female friends, he was driving across the bridge at 2:30am as part of a night out, when he was harassed by a group of young men in another car. He swerved suddenly to the left in order to avoid them, but in so doing lost control of his car, which crossed into the opposite lane and rammed that of Abdel-Rahman.
Witnesses say, however, that Shaladem was racing with a friend, Mansour Mahmoud, 19, who was in another car, and it was this that caused him to lose control. Both cars were driving at very high speeds, witnesses said, sporadically swerving towards each other.
Shaladem now faces charges of wrongful killing as a result of reckless driving, driving without a license, driving while under the influence of alcohol, and disrespect for traffic regulations. He is also charged with damaging property. Along with Mahmoud, Shaladem is charged with wrongfully injuring Shahinaz Mohamed as a result of negligence and irresponsible driving.
Mahmoud's uncle, Yasser Salah El-Sayed, who was in the passenger seat of the second car, has also been charged with public drunkenness. Both Mahmoud and his uncle pleaded no connection with the accident.
In a further tragic accident 31 people died and 10 others were seriously injured as they headed home to Cairo from Minya on 23 July. Two coaches, carrying 50 young people back from a visit to the Monastery of the Virgin Mary in Samalut, 230 kilometres south of Cairo, were hit by a trailer which had come away from a truck travelling in the opposite direction. The visit had been organised by the Coptic Mar Girgis (Saint George) Church in Cairo.
According to Wael Abdel-Sattar, the driver of the truck, the trailer became disconnected when the coupling broke and hurtled into one bus head on, splitting it in two. The second bus crashed into the first, and overturned at the side of the road.
Investigators, however, have revealed that iron chains used to back up the coupling were missing, and that the trailer was inadequately connected to the truck.
Meanwhile, four people died in another crash in Beni Suef on the same day, when a small bus rammed into a coach carrying students from Beni Suef University. The driver of the bus lost control of the vehicle while travelling at high speed and was killed upon impact when it crashed into the coach.
Last week in Alexandria, three people were killed, and four seriously injured, when a private car collided with a truck near Al-Max communication tower.
On the Cairo-Alexandria desert road on 26 July, one man was killed and four injured when a truck rammed a car parked on the hard shoulder. Youssef Farag and his brother were changing a tyre when a speeding truck crashed into them, killing Youssef and seriously injuring his brother. On the same day on the Pyramids Road in Cairo, an Arab businessman and two friends were seriously injured when a truck rammed their car and then quickly sped away. Both truck drivers fled the scenes of the accidents.
Just outside Giza, 24 people were injured when two passenger-packed vehicles collided in Ayyat on 25 July. The two vehicles crashed head on, apparently as a result of reckless driving on the part of their drivers.
On 28 July, 14 people were killed and six injured on the Cairo-Assiut road when two vehicles collided after a van heading to Cairo, and a pick-up truck heading in the opposite direction, slammed into each other.
A day earlier, some 15 people were killed and four injured on the Minya desert road apparently due to reckless driving on the part of cab drivers. In the same week, seven people were killed and five injured on the Minya desert road and on the Cairo-Alexandria rural road.
According to government statistics, 23,363 accidents took place on Egypt's roadways in 1998, claiming the lives of 5,000 people and injuring 22,000 others. Accidents also accounted for one quarter of all hospital cases. More than 50 per cent of those killed or injured were in their mid-20s, and one fifth of children aged between one and five years old. Losses as a result of traffic accidents are currently estimated at LE one billion a year.
According to Ibrahim El-Demeiri, vice-president of Ain Shams University and an expert in urban planning, many road accidents occur because of reckless driving, especially by young people. But he said that in order to drive well, the vehicle must be well maintained, the road must be safe, and drivers must know the basics of good driving and traffic law.
It has been suggested that poorly qualified drivers are behind the recent spate of accidents. Moreover, in the past, there were no proper driving tests and no proper tests on traffic laws and regulations. However under a recently announced new licensing system, only 25 per cent of candidates now pass their driving tests. Those who fail must wait three months before resitting the test. In the event of a second failure, the candidate cannot resit the test for a further year.
