CAIRO - Thirty-two passengers, mostly workers, were killed and 34 injured Tuseday in two road crashes in Egypt's Nile Delta province of Sharqiya, a security official said. "In the first road accident, four private cars and a microbus collided head-on with a sand-laden truck on Belbeis-Cairo Desert Road. Twenty workers on the microbus heading to the Industrial city of Ramadan 10th were killed and 14 injured," the official said. He added that the death toll was high due to the fact that the microbus was originally a van with a cloth cover on its box to carry workers. "The main reason was the overspeed of the cars.However, heavy fog and low visibility are also to blame," the official said. He added that the second crash also took place early in the morning near Belbeis when a small truck hit another one laden with gas cylinders. "The small truck was illegally carrying farm workers, including young children whose ages were between 9 and 17 years, hit the truck from behind killing 12 people," the official said. According to him, 20 others young workers were injured in the accident which was blamed on heavy fog. Sharqiya Governorate is 40kms north east of Cairo. Traffic accidents are common in Egypt due to poor road conditions, weak enforcement of safety regulations and reckless driving. Some 8,000 people die and 32,000 are injured on Egypt's roads each year, according to official statistics.
