On 26 March 2021, two trains collided in the

Tahta Tahta ( / , ALA-LC: ''Ṭahṭā''; ; , ) is a city in the Sohag Governorate of Upper Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the Nile in an area known for its agricultural richness. Tahta had a population of 85,528 in the 2017 census. Egypt ...

district of the

Sohag Governorate Sohag () is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is located in the southern part of the country (Upper Egypt), and covers a stretch of the Nile Valley. Since 1960, its capital has been the city of Sohag. Prior to that, the capital was the city ...

in Egypt. Eighteen people were killed and at least 200 others were injured. The incident was initiated by an unidentified person or persons intentionally triggering the emergency brakes on the leading train which was then hit by the following train.

Background

Egypt's railways have a record of poor equipment maintenance, neglect, and bad management. The

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

records nearly 11,000 accidents on rail lines between 2008 and 2017, including a high of 1,793 in 2017. In 2018,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil El-Sisi (born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has been serving as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. After the 2011 Egyptian revolution and 201 ...

stated that the country's government lacked the 250 billion EGP (14 billion USD) in funds required to address all the problems within the rail system.

Incident

The collision occurred in the

district of the

, approximately south of the capital city of

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. The Egyptian Ministry of Transportation has said passengers in the front train, heading from

Luxor Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt. Luxor had a population of 263,109 in 2020, with an area of approximately and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. It is among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited c ...

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

, pulled the emergency brakes while in transit between the stations of

El Maragha El Maragha (, ) is a city in the Sohag Governorate in Upper Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the Nile. Etymology The name of the city is a corruption of . This claim is also supported by a Coptic translation of this toponym (). His ...

and

. This caused the train to come to a stop, where it was then hit from behind by a second train that was heading from

Aswan Aswan (, also ; ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate. Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract. The modern city ha ...

, which destroyed two carriages and caused a third to overturn. Initial death tolls were given at 32, which was revised down to 19 and later to 18.

Response

Seventy-four ambulances were dispatched to treat passengers.

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Mostafa Madbouly Mostafa Kamal Madbouly (born 28 April 1966) is an Egyptian politician who serves as the 54th and current Prime Minister of Egypt. He was appointed by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to succeed Sherif Ismail following his government's resignation i ...

announced that the families of victims killed in the crash would be given compensation of 100,000 EGP ( USD) and lifetime pensions.

Investigation

On 11 April 2021, Egypt's prosecution service declared that nobody was at the controls of one of the trains when they both collided. In addition, one of the train drivers had deactivated the

automatic train control Automatic train control (ATC) is a general class of train protection systems for railways that involves a speed control mechanism in response to external inputs. For example, a system could effect an emergency brake application if the driver do ...

system (ATC) in order to move faster, while an assistant of the stationary train was under the influence of

tramadol Tramadol, sold under the brand name Tramal among others, is an opioid analgesic, pain medication and a serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) used to treat moderately severe pain. When taken by mouth in an immediate-release form ...

, and a control tower guard had used

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

References

External links