18 burned to death, 18 injured in school bus crash in Beheira

Eighteen were killed and 18 others were injured on Wednesday in the Beheira governorate when a school bus collided with three other cars, including a tank truck, setting the bus on fire, state-owned Al-Ahram reports. Most of the casualties were school students.

The accident occurred on the Alexandria Road in the area of Abu Hummus in Beheira. The bus was carrying students from the Orman School of Hospitality. According to security sources in Beheira, a truck hit the school bus, pushing it into the opposite lane and causing it to collide with a car and a tank trunk, which set both the school bus and the car on fire. The family in the car was also killed, according to eye-witnesses

In a morning talk show on privately owned CBC channel, eyewitnesses said that fire fighters arrived over an hour after the collision, and that there was nothing they could do as they watched the students bang on the bus windows after it caught fire. The footage shows the bus completely burnt down, with only its metal skeleton remaining.

The eye-witnesses said they used a saw to cut through the metal and extract the student bodies. They insist that all the students in the bus died, their numbers exceeding 30.

The governor of Beheira, Mostafa Hadhoud, told Al-Ahram that the bodies of the victims have been burnt beyond identification.

On Sunday, 11 students were killed in another bus accident in Sohag, The bus had turned over into a lake after colliding with a truck, according to official sources.

Several incidents of deaths among school students due to negligence and bad maintenance have been reported since the start of the year. In the first week of schools, a student was run over by the school food truck in South Giza, another was killed when a sheet of glass fell on him and a third in Marsa Matrouh was crushed to death by the school gate.

The accidents continued as a student was killed in a private school last week when a fountain fell on his head.

The Armed Forces announced on its official Facebook page that, following Sisi’s instructions, a medically equipped helicopter was sent to the scene of the accident to save the injured.

The Cabinet adjourned its morning meeting after the accident and Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb headed to the scene accompanied by several ministers. The Cabinet then issued a statement announcing that it would take decisive measures today to fight road accidents.

Head of the Roads and Bridges Authority Saad al-Gioushy said in a telephone interview with Al-Tahrir station earlier this week that the accidents would increase if roads were repaired “because roads would be better and smoother, so speeding will increase and accidents will increase.”

Gioushy alluded to a conspiracy theory without elaborating, saying that the accidents are to be blamed on people with an interest in keeping the nation in chaos.

He also blamed the accidents on the poor maintenance of cars and on those who drive under the influence. He asserted that the road accidents would decrease in the coming period, adding that increasing and executing the penalties against irresponsible drivers is the solution.