CAIRO: A new decree issued by Interior Minister Habib El Adly prohibiting trucks from using the 26th of July Corridor (Mehwar) has not helped decrease accident rates so far, residents in the area told The Daily Star Egypt. The law, which was first implemented on July 1, is set to be effective during July, August and September to prevent the fatal accidents on the Mehwar, particularly during the summer months when there is more traffic on the Cairo-Alexandria route, said a statement by the Central Traffic Authority. The authority has posted traffic officers along the Mehwar to redirect the trucks to the route they should follow instead. According to sources at the Ministry of Transportation, the new law will benefit all by reducing traffic congestion on the Mehwar, and hence cutting the number of accidents and road repairs. However residents of 6th of October, who must take Mehwar to commute everyday, remain pessimistic about whether or not this new law will serve its purpose and if it truly tackles the root of the problem. There was an accident the day before yesterday, and the officer told us that this was the eighth one in the last two hours, said Nermine Noaman, who lives in 6th of October City. She added that she saw officers stop trucks from going on the Mehwar only twice before, and that she often sees them on the road. Many people are dieing in accidents on the Mehwar, she continued. "Prohibiting trucks from using it is not the real solution. Now they are talking about closing up the Mehwar to fix it but that will barely work either. They re not handling the core of the problem, said Lamia Hamdy, a management consultant who has been active in raising awareness about the need to take more stringent measures to prevent accidents on the Mehwar and had written a number of articles about it. "In Egypt we tend to treat the symptoms by being active but not proactive, and the real issue is the demographics of the drivers on the Mehwar road. Hamdy further explained that the drivers are usually either young kids who speed like lunatics, reckless microbus drivers or people who have just learnt how to drive with no real road experience. Put all of them together and you have a disaster, she said. Everyday we re worried about who will come home safely and who might get into an accident. The issue is much more grave than the solutions being offered and instead of stopping the trucks why don t they fix the broken fence the cars are fall off, said Hamdy.
