THE horrifying blast on New Year's Eve outside the Two Saints Church in Alexandria drew the nation's attention away from another tragic incident in Upper Egypt, where about 15 people, mostly schoolgirls, drowned one day earlier when their bus was swept off the road by floodwater. Despite the horrifying terrorist attack on churchgoers in Alexandria and the angry demonstrations launched by both Copts and Muslims against the State's laxity in properly securing places of Christian worship, the school bus tragedy shouldn't pass unpunished. The National Meteorological Authority clearly warned of bad weather, including heavy rains and strong winds, that could cause flooding in specific parts of the country, but the administration at el-Walideya Preparatory School in Assiut still approved a school trip to Minya. This required driving along a very dangerous highway, known by the public as ‘Death Road', which also lacks any kind of services. The respected governors of Minya and Assiut should have taken the necessary precautions to protect this highway from the annual floods. What made it worse was that the girls, who survived were stranded in the bad weather for hours, before helped arrived. This accident happened on December 30, just a day before the All Saints Church terrorist bombing, but neither the media nor the new Parliament have given it the attention it warrants. This accident in Minya is not the first and won't be the last, if we continue to be lax about punishing the officials responsible, underestimating the value of citizens' lives. Until some discipline is brought to our highways and officials start listening to weather forecasts, inter-governorate bus trips for schoolchildren should be suspended.
