Four officials at Railway Authority arrested for two-train collision

CAIRO - 14 March 2020: Four officials at Egypt’s Railway Authority have been detained for four days pending investigations over the collision of two trains in Rod al-Farag district, Giza.

Two days ago, a two-rain collision occurred between Imbaba and Ramsis railways stations, injuring13 passengers and no deaths reported.

The arrested officials are senior technician, worker of Al-Nujeli control tower, a supervisor, and worker at Imbaba control tower.

Attorney General Hamada al-Sawy launched investigations into the accident. As per the initial investigations, the driver of one of the two trains was allowed to move without knowing that the second train stopped at Rod al-Farag area due to the malfunction of lightning-signal system.

The authority suspended working of the lightning-signal system due to the bad weather on the same day of the accident and the officials had to work with the paper-based system.

Egypt has been hit with bad weather with extremely heavy rains and accompanied by sandy winds, thunder and low temperatures nationwide since Thursday. This unstable wave of weather would end Saturday.

A 6-year-old child was killed after a huge tree fell on his house due to the bad weather, injuring his mother and the two other brothers in Qena governorate, Upper Egypt on Thursday. A total of 31 trees and 16 electricity towers and a minaret of a mosque have fallen, while 5 houses collapsed in the governorate.

Also, seven people in Helwan's 15 May city died when their houses collapsed due to the bad weather.