CAIRO – 16 March 2021: Egypt's attorney General Hamada el Sawy has ordered a set of measures in investigations into a deadly collision of two trains in Sohag Friday.
The announced measures included questioning the two trains' drivers, their assistants, the control tower's worker, and the railway crossing operator. They are also to undergo a drug test. Their mobile phones have been seized to examine their last call logs.
The top prosecutor also ordered officials of the Egyptian National Railways (ENR) to be summoned for questioning, the Public Prosecution said in a statement.
He also ordered to immediately seize memory cards of the main control unit of the two trains, control tower, as well as data storage units of cameras installed on the railway slides, houses and facilities overlooking the scene.
Sawy formed a five-member committee comprising engineers from the Engineering Authority of the Armed Forces and the Advisory Office of the Military Technical College, alongside a member of the Administrative Control Authority to inspect the two trains, their suitability and the validity of their safety devices.
He also tasked the committee to inspect the scene to probe the causes of the accident.
The prosecutor general ordered a committee of forensic doctors to examine the bodies of the deceased and classify the unidentified bodies.
During a press conference earlier Friday, Egypt’s Prime Minster Mustafa Madbouli said that the government started developing Egypt’s railways four years ago; however, ‘there is still more work still to be done especially that it was long neglected in the past decades.’
He added that Egypt’s railways is one of the most used facilities by Egyptians on a daily basis, ‘we couldn’t just halt the train movement until finishing all the maintenance and development work.”
He noted that President Abdel Fattah al Sisi directed firmly to take all necessary measures as soon as the collision of Sohag train took place, he added that he moved immediately along with several other minsters to the collision location and visited the victims and checked on the accident updates.
Sisi also allocated an army aircraft to transport critical cases to from Sohag to Cairo hospitals, according to Madbouly.
He added that the government started an investigation in the accident, affirming that all whom involved in the accident will be held accountable and punished.
Egypt’s premier explained that the compensations were one of the main things he discussed with president Sisi, who decided to double to customary compensations reaching up to LE100,000 in the victims’ critical cases.
He also offered condolences to all Egyptians and the families of Sohag train victims.
Earlier Friday two trains in the city of Tahta in Sohag, Upper Egypt, collided in a tragic accident.
The accident took place on Friday morning after an air-conditioned train that was bound from Luxor to Alexandria, collided with another passenger train that was bound from Aswan to Cairo, resulted in derailing two passenger carriages.
Egyptian Prime Minister ordered to quickly transport the injured people to hospitals and provide them the medical service, while Health Minister Hala Zayed headed to the site of the collision to follow up the situation.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Hamada El Sawy orders to launch an investigation into the accident.
When Luxor-Alexandria train stopped after unknown people pulled the emergency valve in one of the train carraiges, the Aswan-Cairo train collided with it from the back.
The collision led to the overturning of 2 passenger carriages and a locomotive, according to a statement from the Egyptian Railway.
A technical committee has been formed to follow up on the situation and investigate the accident, the authority said, noting that it is following up on the situation to resume the train traffic as soon as possible.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said a “deterrent punishment” will be inflicted on whoever caused by any means the “tragic” train collision in Sohag to take place.
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