22 dead in road accidents due to heavy fog

Sixteen people died and 22 were injured in a 22-vehicle pileup of trucks, microbuses and cars amid heavy fog on Sunday morning on the Korayemat Road between Giza and Beni Suef, the Health Ministry announced on Sunday.

Another incident on Sunday morning resulted in the deaths of six people, when a train collided into a pick-up truck carrying workers at a railway crossing in the area of Ayyat in Giza. The truck driver reportedly didn’t realize he was at the crossing due to heavy fog, 

Egypt's railway crossings depend on a system of guards manually opening and closing the gates when a train is passing through, which has resulted in a number of collissions in the past. 

In 2012, 52 school children between the ages of six and eight years old were killed when a train crashed into their school bus at full speed at a train crossing in Assiut.

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail tasked Transport Minister Saad al-Geyoushy with opening an investigation into Sunday’s train crash. Ismail requested that the Social Solidarity Ministry release LE10,000 each for the families of the deceased. 

A large number of deaths occur on Egypt's roads every year. The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) released a report in December 2015 stating that 2,800 people died on the roads in the first half of 2015 alone. The report indicated a 3.5 percent increase in accidents from the previous year, but a 7 percent decrease in deaths resulting from these accidents.