Maher Agami, a retired carpenter from Sharqia Governorate, does not know how he will sustain his family now that his l4-year-old son, who is the family breadwinner, is lying in hospital. Mohamed, a preparatory school student, has managed to balance study with work to help bring food to the table for his siblings and parents. One day, as usual, Mohamed jumped into a pickup that carries labourers and simple employees on a daily journey between neighbouring villages. That day Mohamed, the youngest of the passengers, underwent a nightmare. The pickup collided into a truck that in turn bumped into another truck, which was pulling over on the side of Belbeis-Enshas road. The pickup was smashed after another pick up hit it hard from the back. Mohamed was the only survivor among five other passengers from his village Kafr Shalshalamon. Sharqia Governorate, whose boundary is located some 70 kilometres northeast of Cairo, was reported to have witnessed in the first two weeks of the new year three accidents in a single day leaving 34 dead and 43 injured. According to a recent report released by the Shura Council (the Upper House of Egyptian Parliament), the cost of road accidents in Egypt accounts for one to one and a half per cent of its GDP, that is LE l2-l8 billion a year. Statistics issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) also show that the death toll of road accidents in Egypt in 2007 amounted to l6,000, whereas casualties were estimated at l54,000. World reports have stated that the safety of local roads is below international standards; somthing the families of road accident victims realise all too well. The Belbeis-Enshas highway is a dual carriage way that does not bear radar speed detectors and is devoid of police patrol services, although it daily witnesses heavy traffic of heavy transport vehicles. Users of the road say it is commonplace to see speeding drivers on the opposite side of the road. Many of them are either under the effect of drugs and/or underage and yet usually get away with such violations. The condition of many other highways across the country is almost the same. Young Mohamed then lost in a blink of an eye four of his mates who were hoping to find work in the 10th of Ramadan community. He saw with his very own eyes how their bodies were torn into pieces and squashed into the metal pieces of the smashed vehicles. The people of the village have pointed a finger to the governorate officials, accusing them of laxity and negligence. They say a broken truck has been left on the side of the road for two months causing the tragic accident. Although Sharqia Governor, Yehia Abdel-Meguid has announced that the injured in the three accidents would get LE6,000 each, whereas families of the dead are to get LEl0,000, such indemnities have not so far been paid. The Transport Committee of the Shura Council stated in its report that road accidents in Egypt, which are 20 per cent higher than international rates, are hampering economic and social development and shaking the social and psychological stability of society. The parliamentary report attributed the frequent occurrence of road accidents to lack of traffic discipline, the ignorance of a large number of drivers of traffic rules and the bad technical condition of vehicles being driven in the streets, highways in particular. The committee has also criticised governmental expenditure on road maintenance, which was LE8.3 billion last year, representing less than half the requisite sum. The appalling statistics released by WHO reveal that the rate of road accident deaths in Egypt is 371.7 instances per l00,000 vehicles and 41.6 deaths per l00,000 persons.
