30 dead and 15 injured in Aswan road accident

Thirty people were killed and 15 others injured Monday when three microbuses crashed into each other on the Aswan desert road, the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

The accident took place 10 kilometers off of Edfu, north of the governorate of Aswan.

The victims were transferred to the Edfu morgue and the injured to the Edfu Hospital.

Governor of Aswan Mostafa Yousry said that most of the victims were fishermen from Lake Nasser who were on their way back to their hometown of Fayoum, southwest of Cairo, for vacation.

Yousry said two of the microbuses were coming from Aswan and the third was coming from Luxor, according to MENA.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered the government to facilitate the treatment of those injured in the accident, and ordered an investigation into the cause of the accident.

He also ordered the government to take necessary measures to curb the amount of road accidents.

Governor of Fayoum Hafez Attia said that families of the victims will receive LE10,000 in compensation and that the injured will be treated at the state's expense.

Last September, Transportation Minister Hany Dahy made statements at the "Egypt: Road to the Future" conference, saying that problems with infrastructure account for over 15 percent of road accidents each year in Egypt.

A government report released in March by the Ministries of Interior and Transportation claimed that the majority of Egypt’s road and railway accidents are caused by human error.  The report explained that human error is responsible for 62 percent of accidents, while technical problems account for 16 percent and road conditions a further 1.8 percent.  

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 12,000 fatalities occur each year as a result of traffic accidents. The study suggested that reasons other than human error were a factor.

Last August, 44 people were killed in a bus collision in Sharm el-Sheikh. Investigations showed that the accident was a result of excess speed and one of the drivers falling asleep.

Four days later, two microbuses fell into an irrigation canal near the Upper Egyptian city of Luxor, killing 19 people.