CAIRO: At least 29 people were killed this morning in a road accident caused by thick fog.
The accident occurred 22 km into a highway headed south from Cairo’s Autostrade.
An eyewitness who uses the road for his daily commute to work told Daily News Egypt that he found a bloodbath upon arriving at the scene of the accident.
“I work in El-Koreymaat, which is approximately 30 km outside Beni Suef and use this road to get to work every day. It’s approximately 80 km long, and while it’s well maintained, it has no emergency services whatsoever, the eyewitness – who preferred to remain anonymous – explained.
“I went through the road’s first toll station and received a phone call from colleagues ahead of me that there had been an accident at kilometer 22 some time between 6:30 and 7 am. I arrived at the scene of the accident at roughly 7:15 am to find a pile-up of roughly seven trailer lorries, three or four pick-up trucks and two microbuses. There was blood everywhere, he continued.
The eyewitness told Daily News Egypt that he counted at least 30 fatalities.
He says that when he arrived at the scene there were two ambulances already there but that one of them got stuck in mud at the side of the road for 15 minutes until bystanders succeeded in pushing it out. The other ambulance merely transported the dead away from the scene.
He also said that the road remained open despite the seriousness of the incident which itself resulted in further incidents.
“While people were standing on the road at the scene another accident happened when a microbus crashed into a pick-up truck killing everyone in the microbus – around 11 people. The road wasn’t closed and two further accidents happened as a result of drivers being distracted by the sight of the carnage, he said.
According to eyewitness, police officers arrived at the scene more than two hours after the accidents.
“At around 9:15 am a police car arrived. Two police officers were at the scene and didn’t do anything except make reports and so on while people died around them, the eyewitness told Daily News Egypt.
According to the eyewitness, traffic traveling in the direction of the accident was eventually diverted to an alternative route, the Agricultural Road, but he says that the other lane remains open.
Daily News Egypt contacted the Ministry of Transport Thursday morning to confirm this account and obtain further details but was told by employees that they know nothing about the incident.
