CAIRO - Sixteen people died when the microbus they were riding collided head-on with a truck loaded with sand on the Cairo-Alexandria Agricultural Road Tuesday night, a security official said Wednesday. "The car crash took place near a newly built bridge in the city of Qalioub, when the driver of the microbus lost control of his vehicle due to excessive speed. Around 16 people died and five other were badly injured," the official told the official Middle East News Agency (MENA). He added that the victims were transferred to a nearby hospital. "The prosecutors ordered the bodies to be buried and the two drivers were remanded for four days pending further questioning," the official said. In a bid to curb high road crashes, the Egyptian Government enacted a new tougher traffic code in 2008. Egypt has its share of bad roads, high speeds, and low traffic law enforcement. Official statistics estimate that 8,000 people are killed and 32,000 hurt in Egyptian road accidents each year. Critics believe that official figures understate the problem. According to one study, the accident rate in Egypt is about 34 times higher than in the European countries and roughly three times higher than countries in the Middle East.
