ASSIUT: A four-vehicle collision in southern Egypt Saturday killed 13 Egyptians and injured 10 others, police said. A truck and a minibus crashed on a single-lane highway, a police official said speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press. Two additional speeding trucks then barreled into the first two vehicles. The accident occurred close to the southern city of Assiut. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital, the official added. Egypt has been hit by a string of fatal rail and traffic accidents over the past month. At least 58 people were killed and 144 injured when a passenger train slammed into the back of another using the same track in the town of Qalyub, just north of Cairo last month, derailing carriages and setting one train ablaze. At least 11 people were killed when a bus carrying mostly Israeli tourists flipped over near the northern Sinai resort of Nuweiba, security and hospital sources said. Hospital sources on the peninsula, home to resorts that are popular with such tourists, said 39 others were injured. Most of the victims were believed to be Arab Israelis, the sources said. Egyptian security sources said the accident occurred on a winding mountain road near the hamlet of Saada, about 45 km north of Nuweiba, as the bus was heading to Taba, on the border with Israel. The sources said the bus was speeding but did not rule out a technical fault as the cause of the accident. Eleven Egyptians also died last month when their minibus, part of a wedding convoy, overturned near the southern city of Aswan, police said. Eleven Egyptians, including three children and two women, were killed in the accident which occurred in Kom-Ombo, some 800 km south of the capital, police said. Many Egyptians celebrate weddings by hiring cars and motorbikes to tear around the streets in often ragged convoys, blaring horns and disrupting traffic. The country s deadliest rail disaster occurred in February 2002, when a passenger using a stove set fire to a train, killing at least 361. The lack of emergency exits resulted in most passengers being trapped inside the burning carriages. On February 3, a ferry sank in the middle of the Red Sea, killing around 1,000 people in one of the worst maritime tragedies in recent years. Ship owner Mamdouh Ismail, a government-appointed member of the upper house and the ruling National Democratic Party of President Hosni Mubarak, subsequently fled the country. He was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in March, his assets were frozen a month later and he was made to pay compensation to the families of victims. The fact that Ismail, who is believed to have close ties with the presidency, was allowed to flee the country fueled accusations that the state was involved at the highest level. About 6,000 people die in road accidents each year. A report by the transport ministry said they were the second-highest cause of death in the country. Accidents occur frequently on Egyptian roads, which are often poorly maintained and where traffic regulations are not stringently applied. Agencies
