Update: 44 dead in Sharm el-Sheikh bus collision

The number of fatal casualties in Friday’s bus collision in Sharm el-Sheikh rose to 44, as more body parts were found and identified, privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported.

Both drivers are currently in the custody of South Sinai prosecution until investigations are finalized.

A committee of engineers and technicians will examine the condition of the buses in an attempt to figure out what caused the accident.

South Sinai Governor, Khaled Fouda, visited the injured in Sharm el-Sheikh International Hospital twice, explaining that from initial investigations, the accident seems to be down to excess speed and one of the drivers falling asleep. However, Fouda also speculated that the collision might be the result of a terrorist act. 

The buses were carrying two Saudi nationals, a Yemeni, a Ukrainian national and a number of Egyptians working in the tourist sector.

State-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported that several body parts were collected at the scene as a result of the strong collision, which caused one of the buses to flip over. The road remained closed for three hours as ambulances transported the victims and the injured and cranes lifted the buses to retrieve the bodies.

Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Waly said compensation dispensed to the families of the victims and injured would be double the normal amount, and that families of those killed would receive LE10,000 and families of the injured LE4000, the state-owned Middle East News Agency reported.

According to the World Health Organization’s latest study, 12,000 people die annually in Egypt as a result of road accidents. 48 percent of them are passengers of four-wheeled vehicles, although pedestrians also constitute a significant proportion (20 percent) of fatalities.

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

The report said there were 100,000 accidents on Egypt’s roads between 2008 and 2012, in which there were 33,000 fatalities, 155,000 injuries and 125,000 cars destroyed.