Health Ministry: 32 deaths, 108 injuries after Sohag train crash

Two trains collided in Sohag on Friday, killing at least 32 people and injuring 108, according to a Health Ministry statement. 

A source from the Sohag Health Directorate was later reported as saying that the number of deaths increased to 36. 

Footage showing rescue operations led primarily by families as well as some firefighters was shared on social media, along with clips showing people still trapped inside the train calling desperately for help. 

The Egyptian Railway Authority accused “unknown” people of triggering emergency brakes on some of the cars of an Alexandria-bound train, bringing the whole train to a sudden halt between two stations in Tahta, Sohag. A Cairo-bound train traveling from Aswan collided with the stationary vehicle and overturned two of its cars. 

Officials responding to the incident on Friday included Transport Minister Major General Kamel al-Wazir, who ordered both train drivers to be arrested. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbuly also traveled to Tahta, giving orders for a specialized technical committee to be formed to investigate and report on why the collision happened. Egypt’s public prosecutor launched an urgent judicial investigation, while requesting that all parties refrain from issuing statements to the public. 

Friday’s incident comes two months after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced a project to overhaul Egypt’s railway network, on which fatal incidents are common. 1,863 incidents were recorded in 2019 alone.

During the last major incident in February 2019, a railway car traveling at high speed collided with a platform at Cairo’s central Ramses Railway Station resulting in a major fire that claimed the lives of 22 people. Two years earlier, 44 people were killed by a train crash in Alexandria.

Responsibility for the 2019 Ramses incident was attributed to professional negligence and error on the part of six railway workers including the train’s driver, who was sentenced to 15 years, while the others received sentences ranging between seven and 10 years. Following the Ramses accident, then-Transportation Minister Hisham Arafat resigned and Kamel al-Wazir, former head of the Armed Forces Engineering Authority was appointed in his place. Wazir fired one of the heads of the Egyptian Railway Authority in turn and announced plans to carry out a major restoration of the national rail network.

Though railway staff are often convicted for professional misconduct leading to accidents, structural flaws including the failure of key safety mechanisms have proven to be key in rendering the frequent train accidents fatal. 

Four accident-prevention measures are in place to ensure the safety of rail traffic: a manual device allows operating conductors to bring trains to halt within 24 seconds of sending a signal. If the event that the first device fails, the conductor can use what is known as the “dead man’s switch” to send another signal to the control tower, which can then intervene to halt the train within another 24 seconds. Third, a system called the “automatic train control” is in place to allow signaling towers to automatically halt the train if something unusual happens. 

The fourth measure — deliberate train derailment — can be activated as a last resort. The signal tower official will disconnect the tracks, causing the train to be dislodged before it crashes.

However, pressure on trains and instructions to keep operations running consistently render commitment to safety standards difficult. One train driver has told Mada Masr that Railway Authority officials ignore flaws within the safety precautions in order to keep trains on schedule. “Half of the trains won’t move daily if all safety standards are met,” he said. 

In November last year, newspapers reported that major train delays across the country were the result of drivers beginning consistently to operate safety equipment after the courts convicted and sentenced a driver to nine years in relation to a train incident that occurred in March 2020.