CAIRO: A truck ran over a minibus in southern Egypt on Thursday, killing 20 people and seriously wounding one, police said. The accident occurred at 6 a.m. in the town of Maghagha in the Minya province, about 220 km south of Cairo. The minibus tried to overtake a car on a two-lane road, and hit the truck driving in the opposite direction, police officials said. The truck driver was killed, along with 19 people in the minibus. The only survivor was taken to hospital in Minya, police said. In a separate incident, five people were killed and six injured in the southern city of Sohag when a minibus and a taxi had a head-on collision. Both drivers were among the dead. 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 Qalyoub, just north of Cairo last month, derailing carriages and setting one train ablaze. Also last month, 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. 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 at the time. 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.
