CAIRO: An Egyptian court sentenced 14 railway officials, including the deputy chairman of the railway authority, to one year in jail Sunday for their role in a deadly train accident that killed 58 people last year. The Qalyub Criminal Court convicted the 14 officials of gross negligence, including ignoring repairs to technical equipment that signaled the trains. The convicted officials, including Abdel-Rahim Mehran, deputy chairman of the railway authority, have the right to appeal. The crash occurred in August last year when a passenger train barreling toward the rail station in the town of Qalyub, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the capital Cairo, collided with a second train. The trains belonged to the country s oldest and most dilapidated third-class train service. Egypt has a poor safety record on its railways and there are several fatal accidents each year, usually blamed on inadequately maintained equipment. The worst recent disaster took place in February 2002, when a train heading to southern Egypt caught fire, killing 363 people.
