Van turned over in Qena, leaves 43 people injured, mostly children

CAIRO – 9 April 2020: A total of 43 people, mostly children, were injured in a road accident Thursday morning after a van, laden with workers, turned over near a security ambush in a city in Upper Egypt’s governorate, Qena.

The van turned due to high speed; the 43 passengers suffer minor bruises and cuts. They were transferred to several hospitals northern Qena, and most of them are in stable conditions.

According to the investigations, the vehicle was laden with 43 people, mostly children and temporary workers, who were heading to one of the agricultural areas to carry out their farming works.

A police report was filed about the accident, and the Public Prosecution started investigating the incident.

Egypt was part of the United Nation’s decade of action program that started 2011 with an ambitious target to halve global number of deaths from road accidents by 2020. The country embarked on an extensive local program that included: toughening punishment on traffic violators, building new road networks, renovating bridges and launching drug-driving tests.

The Cabinet’s Information Center announced that Egypt jumped 89 places in roads quality rankings by The Global Economy from the 118th in 2014 to the 29th in 2019.

In February, Egypt participated in the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety kicked in Stockholm, Sweden, where around 1,700 delegates from 140 countries shared progress and lessons from implementation of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, and adopted a future plan to reduce the number of road accidents and deaths.