Fatal accidents have become all too common on desert highways. Reem Nafie reports on the latest devastating tragedy Forty-five labourers arrived at Safaga -- a Red Sea coastal port city -- from Saudi Arabia last Saturday, anxious to make their way to Minya to spend the remaining days of Ramadan and the Eid Al-Fitr holiday with their loved ones. The next day, they all got on a bus, happy to finally be on the last leg home. The labourers were all from villages near Minya a Nile-side city some 200 kilometres south of Cairo. Most of them never made it. Halfway through their journey on the Assiut-Cairo desert highway, a truck, towing a trailer loaded with sugar, hit the bus head-on at full speed. Thirty-two of the labourers, as well as the bus driver, died in the crash. Thirteen others were seriously injured, and are currently being treated at five different hospitals in Minya. Only 28 of the bodies were identified; officials are still trying to identify the remaining five. Eyewitnesses near the scene of the accident -- near Samalut, a Nile-side town near Minya -- said they saw the truck trying to overtake a car on the opposite lane of the two-way undivided highway, before it plowed into the bus, which they said was also travelling at very high speed. The details of the accident remained hazy. Other witnesses said a second truck was crossing the highway from the side, thus confusing the drivers of both the bus and the truck, leading to the accident. Police are investigating both scenarios. Initial police reports indicated that many of the dead were Egyptian pilgrims coming back from the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca. Later investigations led to a change in the story, with police saying all those who died were workers. Large sums of money were found in the pockets of some of the dead workers, as well as amongst the luggage in the wreckage from the crash. An acquaintance of some of the workers, who was visiting those who were injured at Minya Hospital told the press that, "southern Egyptians do not believe in banks. Several of the workers who were on the bus had decided to come back to Egypt for good, and had brought all of the money they had made in Saudi Arabia with them in their pockets." All the baggage and money found in the crash is currently in police possession, in preparation for it being returned to the families of the deceased. It remains unclear what will happen to the bags with no identification on them. These types of accidents have become extremely common over the past few years, ending the lives of hundreds annually. On Monday, four people on their way to Minya on the same road died in a car accident. Three others were injured. Cairo traffic police general Youssri Khalil said an estimated 8,000 people were killed, and 320,000 injured, in road accidents in Egypt in 2003. "Desert road accidents are so frequent due to high speeds, poor enforcement of traffic laws, and bad roads," Khalil told Al-Ahram Weekly. Many of the desert roads -- especially those leading to southern Egypt -- are "narrow, two- way highways," he said, and unfortunately "no one is careful while they drive." Although there has been many a recent press campaign calling for better paving of desert roads and greater enforcement of traffic rules, not much concrete effort has actually been made. The media had intensified its campaigns in the lead up to this week's crash, fearing a repeat of the many tragic crashes that happen during the pilgrimage season. Just three weeks ago, 14 Egyptians heading to Saudi Arabia for a pilgrimage were killed when their bus overturned near the Red Sea town of Hurghada. Khalil said the government had been focussing on "modernising" the Alexandria- Cairo, Hurghada-Cairo and Sharm El-Sheikh- Cairo desert highways since they all lead to popular tourist resorts. He said southern Cairo desert roads are next on the government's list. Until then, the death toll is unlikely to stop.
