4 people die, 19 injured in bus-truck collision on Matrouh-Siwa Rd.

CAIRO – 12 November 2018: A bus collided with a truck loaded with salt on Marsa Matrouh-Siwa desert road, leaving four people dead and 19 others injured.

A bus of the Public Works Sector Ministry's West and Middle Delta Bus Company collided with a truck carrying salt on Kilo 60 on Matrouh-Siwa desert road. The injured suffered bone fractures, bruises and brain concussion.

On Friday, a car overturned on Salloum-Matrouh highway, leaving one person dead and 13 others injured.

Thousands of Egyptians die on the road every year due to traffic accidents. Egypt recorded 11,098 traffic accidents in 2017, a 24.6 percent decrease compared to 14,710 accidents in 2016, according to a statement by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS.)

Those accidents resulted in the death of 3,747 people, the injury of 13,998, and the damage of 17,201 vehicles, according to the 2017 report released by CAPMAS.

Development of the national road network helped decrease road accidents in 2017, according to the state’s official agency.

Seventy-two percent of traffic accidents in Egypt occur due to human error, according to statistics released by CAPMAS of car and train accidents in 2016.

The country is among the 10 states enrolled in a UN program that aims to half the rate of road deaths by 2020. Since 2014, Egypt launched a number of projects and campaigns to monitor road safety, including building new roads, maintaining dilapidated bridges and carrying out random drug tests on drivers.