CAIRO - The number of road accidents was more than doubled between 2009 and 2010 whereas the fatalities shot up to 8,500 last year, police officials said on Friday. The proportion of fatal accidents in the total road mishaps has increased since 2008 so much so that the severity of accidents in terms of persons killed per 100 accidents increased from 2.4 per cent per hour in 2009 to 2.6 per cent in 2010, the officials said. More than 8,500 persons were killed in road accidents in 2010, whereas the number of injuries has reached 35,000 during the same year, they added. However, these figures do not reflect the severity of the road accidents across the country, the officials said, blaming inadequate road safety regulations and a lax attitude towards driving for the accidents that kill an estimated 74 persons every day. They said that the number of annual deaths occurring from car accidents is expected to rise from 6,500 to reach 6,800 by 2011 due to the rapid growth of vehicle ownership.
