A spate of recent road accidents

A crash between a tourist bus and a security truck Tuesday morning on the Cairo-Aswan road left three dead and 25 injured, according to state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper, who added that the injured reportedly include a number of infants, who were badly hurt.

This accident follows a number of similar incidents in the last week, with many people leaving the capital during Ramadan to visit family and friends, or to head to the coast as the weather heats up.

A crash between a microbus and a truck left six dead and six injured on the Cairo-Ismailia road on Saturday. According to Security Director Meligi Fattouh, who spoke to Al-Ahram following the accident, the collision was caused by vehicles driving at high speeds.

Another accident occurred on Wednesday last week, when two children were killed and 23 injured in a bus crash in Hurghada. The state-owned Middle East News Agency reported that the bus overturned at the entrance to Hurghada and a seven-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl died.

Wednesday’s accident brings the total of those dying in road accidents over the last week to 11, and the total injured to 54.

Road accidents are the leading cause of death for 15-19 year olds in Egypt, according to the NADA Foundations for Safer Roads’ report from May, 2015.  The foundation also stated that road crashes are the second leading cause of death among children ages 5-14.

The Interior Ministry released a report in March, 2014, suggesting that 62 percent of road and railway accidents in Egypt are caused by human error. However, poor infrastructure and insufficient law enforcement are also often cited as reasons for the high numbers of road accidents.

According to the World Health Organization, around 12,00 people die each year as a result of traffic accidents in Egypt. The study suggested that factors other than human error were at play in causing this large number of fatalities.