Eight university students were killed and 43 were injured Friday in a bus accident on the Nuweiba international road in Egypt's South Sinai governorate, Ahram Arabic website reported. SIx of the killed students were identified, while two bodies remain unidentified. The bus was carrying pharmacy students from Alexandria University, heading to spend their mid-year vacation in a resort in Nuweiba, a coastal city in South Sinai. Injured students were transferred to the central hospital of Nuweiba and Dahab hospital. Twenty-three of them are in severe condition, while the other 20 sustained minor injuries. Initial inspection of the accident showed that the bus driver was driving at a high speed, on a winding road surrounded by mountains and cliffs in the area of Saeda, when he lost control and the bus careened off the road down a hillside. The identities of all injured and killed students are currently being checked at both hospitals. The general persecution was notified to investigate the accident. Deadly road accidents take place on a near-daily basis in Egypt, which is notorious for poor road-safety conditions, badly maintained infrastructure and loosely enforced traffic regulations. According to a study published by the state's official statistics body CAPMAS in August 2016, Egypt saw 25,500 road fatalities in the previous year, while the total number of car accidents was 14,500. According to a global status report on road safety in 2015 published by the World Health Organisation, Egypt ranked 16th for road fatalities among Arab countries and 109th globally out of 180 countries.
