Human error caused 72% of traffic accidents in 2016: CAPMAS

CAIRO – 20 June 2017: Seventy-two percent of traffic accidents in Egypt occur due to human error, according to CAPMAS figures released Tuesday. The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) issued a press release with the statistics of car and train accidents in 2016.

The total number of accidents rose by 1.1 percent in 2016 to record 14,710 accidents resulting in 5,343 deaths, 18,646 injuries and 21,089 damaged vehicles.

August and July had the highest number of accidents in 2016, 9.5 percent and 9.3 percent of the total number of accidents, respectively.

Human error accounted for 72 percent of accidents. Technical problems in vehicles caused 18.2 percent of accidents and road problems accounted for 3.1 percent.

Daily road fatalities decreased in 2016 to an average of 14.6 deaths daily in 2016 after an average 16.9 deaths daily in 2015, and daily injuries decreased from 52.9 in 2015 to 51.1 in 2016.

Death rates on inter-governorate roads fell by 18.3 percent to a total of 4,381 in 2016, and the injury rate also declined by 3.5 percent to 14,649 total injuries.

Highway deaths, however, rose significantly by 14.7 percent from the previous year recording, 962 highway deaths in 2016.

Fatalities among 25- to 44-year-olds declined by 2.7 percent to a total 354 in 2016, representing 36.8 percent of all traffic accident-related fatalities.

Train accidents increased by 1.1 percent recording 1,249 cases. There were 62 train accident related fatalities, which is higher than 2015 by 44.2 percent, and 164 injuries, an increase of 65.7 percent.

Egypt recorded 14,548 traffic accidents in 2015.The crashes resulted in 6,203 deaths, injured 19,325 people and damaged 19,116 vehicles, according to the CAPMAS statement.

“63.3 percent of accidents on highways in 2015 were due to human error, followed by technical issues with vehicles causing 22.9 percent,” read the statement.