Official report blames human error for majority of traffic accidents

A government report released Wednesday by the Ministries of Interior and Transportation has claimed that the majority of Egypt’s road and railway accidents are caused by human error.

The report suggests that human error accounts for 62 percent of accidents on the road, while technical problems account for 16 percent of accidents and road conditions a further 1.8 percent. The main source of human error, according to the report, is lack of vigilance, followed by excessive speed and errors in overtaking other motorists.

There were 100,000 accidents on Egypt’s roads — amounting to 50,000 kilometers of roadway — between 2008 and 2012, the period covered by the new report.

There were 33,000 fatalities, 155,000 injuries and 125,000 cars destroyed. In the same period, according to the report, there were 4,000 train accidents, leading to the deaths of 319 people and a further 500 injuries.

Forty percent of accidents involved lorries and 33 percent private cars. Another nine percent of accidents involved microbuses and seven percent involved buses.

The highest rate of accidents in the period covered was in 2010, a year that saw 24,000 accidents and 7,000 deaths. 2012 saw the lowest rate of traffic accidents, with 15,500 total accidents and 6,431 killed.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), however, there are more than 12,000 fatalities each year from road traffic crashes in Egypt.

Research by the WHO into road safety suggests factors other than human error play a part in the frequency of crashes.

Egypt is one of 10 countries included in the five-year WHO Road Safety initiative. Egypt’s road safety project includes representatives from the Ministries of Interior, Education, and Health as well as civil society groups.

One of the main issues highlighted by the project is that while there is legislation related to road safety in place, these laws are poorly enforced.

This, the WHO says, is compounded by the absence of any adequate provision of infrastructure for non-motorized modes of transport and poor public awareness on road safety.

The project cites a recent survey which found that 75 percent of respondents did not understand the importance of wearing seat-belts. The report suggested that public awareness about seat-belts and speeding could reduce the number of accidents in Egypt.

According to the WHO’s 2013 annual global report on world safety, 92 percent of traffic deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, while these countries have just 53 percent of the world’s registered vehicles.