People who gathered to help in pulling out dead bodies, the injured and survivors of the early hours of Monday morning's train crash at Dahshur, 40km south of Cairo, had no doubt as to the cause of the disaster. Negligence and corruption, they unanimously said, echoing the thoughts of a great many members of the public. Emotions ran high after a cargo train collided into a truck and a minibus with more than 50 passengers, killing 27 people and injuring 34 others. Immediately after the accident all concerned governmental officials made their usual promises that they will conduct an enquiry and rectify the causes — promises that sound increasingly hollow as one disaster follows another on Egypt's transport network where the casualties continue to mount. Various governments before the 2011 revolution and after it have formed fact-finding commissions to investigate these accidents but they did little to shed light on the details and less still to bring about accountability. The accident happened when a cargo train coming from Beni Sweif collided into a truck which was passing the train's crossing point while a minibus was waiting to cross. The train pushed the minibus for more than a kilometre forward while the train's driver was desperately trying to pull the brakes. Bus passengers who were members of an extended family were on their way back to Fayoum governorate after attending an engagement at one of Helwan's churches. According to Ahmed Al-Ansari, head of the Ambulance Authority, ambulances reached the scene 15 minutes after the accident. “Seventeen injured were transferred to Al-Haram Hospital while others were sent to 6 October, Al-Sheikh Zayed hospitals and Umm Al-Masriyeen. Ten of the injured left hospital a few hours after the accident,” said Al-Ansari who added that four children are in intensive care along with two adults. “Many of the injured will be discharged from hospital within the next few days,” added Al-Ansari. Minister of Health and Population Maha Al-Rabat visited the injured and promised them full medical care until being discharged from the hospital. “I will closely follow up on their condition until they are cured. Four of the injured were transferred to Qasr Al-Aini Hospital as their condition was critical and they need better care,” said Al-Rabat. Two hours after the crash, a front loader was dispatched and pulled out the minibus from underneath the train. Civil defence personnel had to cut open the minibus which turned into a heap of tangled metal in order to drag out the bodies and injured. “Civil defence teams, the police and military worked together throughout the night to search for survivors and recover bodies amid the crushed carriages. It was dark and we had to search for survivors using torches and mobile lights,” said Al-Ansari. Cranes were used to remove the twisted wreckage from the tracks and unblock the key rail route, allowing traffic to resume as cars were blocking the Fayoum-Cairo desert road following the accident. The handling of the immediate aftermath of the crash compounded the feelings of frustration. Families faced an ordeal as they attempted to locate relatives and discover whether they had survived. The injured were taken to hospitals and the dead to four morgues, among them the Zeinhom morgue. Lists of names of those admitted to hospitals were incomplete, leaving some families travelling back and forth between hospitals. At the Zeinhom morgue families had to look through all sacked bodies to see if they could identify any of the corpses. “More than 20 ambulances were at the scene which helped in transferring injured passengers to hospitals and the bodies to the morgue,” added Al-Rabat. At the same time, government officials quickly announced they would compensate both families of the dead and the injured. Giza Governor Ali Abdel-Rahman who was present at the location pointed out that the governorate will pay compensations to the victims' families. “Each family of those who died will be compensated by LE5,000 and LE2,000 to those who were injured,” stated Abdel-Rahman. In a press conference which was attended by Prime Minister Hazem Al-Beblawi and Minister of Transport Ibrahim Al-Demeri, Al-Beblawi gave his condolences to families of the dead and injured. “I have ordered a speedy investigation into the incident in order to know what caused the accident. The government will exert its greatest efforts to stop similar accidents from taking place in the future,” said Al-Beblawi told the press. Al-Demeri announced at the press conference that the ministry will compensate families of victims with LE20,000, whereas those of injured will be compensated with up to LE20,000 each according to the severity of their injury. During the press conference, Al-Demeri stated the crossing gates of the tracks were closed with chains and the train's driver was surprised to see vehicles still crossing. In addition the warning lights and warning alarm were on. “I instructed the concerned authorities to form a technical engineering committee to examine the causes of the accident,” said Al-Demeri. At the same time, the minister pointed out, the government had already developed a programme to secure the train crossings. “The programme will be completed by June 2014,” Al-Demeri said, adding that a bridge will be constructed at the Dahshur accident site so that cars do not have to cross the tracks and to save people's lives. At the same time, the minister blamed human error and disobeying of traffic regulations for the Dahshur train crash. “The warning system was on, yet truck and minibus drivers insisted on crossing the gates. People should learn how to respect public property because these properties serve them. We all suffered from the lack of trains during the curfew so people have to change their attitudes when dealing with public property. They also should care more for their lives,” added Al-Demeri. The transport minister told the press that only 891 train crossing points in Egypt are affiliated to the Railway Authority, whereas another 4,500 are make-shift crossings established by local residents. Al-Demeri confirmed he received a report from Hussein Zakaria, head of the Egyptian Railway Authority, asserting that the Dahshur crossing point was closed off by chains before the accident and that the warning lights and alarms were working well. “Vehicles ignored warning lights and chains, and tried to drive through the crossing,” the report stated. However, eyewitness at the accident scene stated that the alarm bells and warning lights for approaching trains were out of service. “Train crossing point workers were asleep at 1am when the accident occurred. They woke up after the accident and tried to escape but the police arrested them,” said Hani Ibrahim, one of the eyewitnesses present at the scene. Meanwhile, Zakaria declared each victim's family will be compensated with LE15,000, whereas those of the injured will be paid LE5,000. Eyewitnesses described how the cargo train crashed into the minibus and the truck. Islam Abdel-Sattar narrated, “The train hit the truck first which was coming from Fayoum and heading to Cairo. It hit the minibus which was coming from the opposite direction heading to Fayoum. The brakes broke, and the train stalled but then pushed the minibus which fell underneath it for at least two kilometers. People in the minibus fell off, and people fell beneath the train,” Abdel-Sattar added. Another eyewitness, Gaber Mohamed, told Al-Ahram Weekly, “I was sitting near the road when I heard a shriek, then shouts and I saw bodies flying in the air to the ground, while others fell off the minibus. The driver and co-driver of the truck are alive, as are the driver and co-driver of the train.” Road passengers who were still gathering at the scene unanimously agreed that the number of fatalities and injuries was similar to those announced by officials. “Me and my cousin helped ambulance workers in removing more than 20 bodies,” said Harbi Al-Sayed who added that rescue forces and civil defence teams showed up nearly an hour after the accident. “We helped the civil defence team which only brought cranes to lift the train wreckage,” added Al-Sayed. Ibrahim Abdel-Hafez blamed the government for the accident. “The government does not really care about people. We are the poor people; the government believes we shouldn't exist. Similar accidents happened in previous years, yet nothing has changed and nothing will.” Prosecutor of southern Giza impounded the train in order to investigate causes of the accident. Immediate investigations also began with the train driver and his assistant, as well as the train crossing point keeper and his assistant. Accident survivor Isaac Gerges, 52, told the Weekly that he lost eight relatives in the accident. “Thank God, my son, George, survived the accident with me.” Speaking from Al-Haram hospital bed in Giza, Gerges said more than 50 members of the same family were returning to Fayoum from an engagement party in Cairo when the train, which was carrying building materials, crashed into a truck heading in the opposite direction before slamming into the minibus. “In less than a second we all lost consciousness until we found ourselves in hospital,” he said while crying after losing many of his relatives. Sarah Mouris, 22, who lost her parents in the accident recalled the incident. “Both of my parents were in the bus which the train collided into. They were laughing while recalling their memories when they were newly wed, wishing me to get married soon. I can't believe myself. Is it true? I will not see them again?” sobbed Mouris. Monday's accident took place just a few days after train services resumed across the country after they were halted due to instability and unrest following the toppling of former president Mohamed Morsi in July. Egypt is notorious for train collisions and has a poor safety record blamed on decades of badly maintained equipment. In January, a train carrying army recruits near Cairo crashed. Nineteen were killed and more than 100 injured. In November of last year, 51 children were killed when a train crashed into their school bus in Assiut. Both the transport minister and the railway authority head were forced to resign as a result of that accident, which was blamed on a train signal operator who fell asleep on the job. The worst train disaster goes back to 2002, when a train caught fire killing around 400 of its passengers.
