Three micro-buses collided in Edfu, north Aswan, Monday morning leaving 27 dead and 18 injured.
According to Ahmed Al-Ansary, head of ambulance authority, the accident took place around 5am on Monday, with 20 ambulances sent to the accident’s location to transport the injured.
He added that some of these injuries are minor, with others more serious.
President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi called for the quick treatment of the injured and an investigation into what caused the accident. He also directed the government to take the necessary measures to limit the number of road accidents for citizens’ safety, according to state-run Al-Ahram.
Prosecution said investigations have shown that the accident took place due to speeding and the attempt of one of micro-buses to over pass the other which ended in the three micro-buses colliding.
According to the prosecution, 26 died in the accident, instead of the 27 reported earlier by the ambulance authority. The authority could not be reached to verify the number of casualties.
In August, over 33 people were killed after two tourist buses collided in Sinai, followed by another accident leaving over 17 killed as two microbuses fell into a canal in Luxor.
A government report released in June stated that road safety is a great concern in Egypt, where daily deaths and incidents have risen in 2013 in comparison to 2012. Around 15,578 car accidents took place in Egypt in 2013, with a death rate of 18.4 people killed every day.
The Central Agency of Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) noted in a report that the age range of the deaths was between 15-29 years.
A 2012 World Health Organization report noted that Egypt’s roads are the source of 42 traffic deaths per 100,000 people annually. The report added that Egypt has the third most dangerous road system in the world.
