At least 22 killed, 33 injured in deadly bus-truck collision on Egypt's Northern Desert Road on Tuesday 19 July 2022. Photo: Al-Ahram
The bus that was heading from Assiut to Cairo with 45 passengers aboard rear-ended the truck while it was parked on the side of the road, which connects the capital with the Upper Egyptian governorates of Minya and Assiut.
The cause of the crash is not immediately clear, however, initial reports indicate that the heavy truck was parked on the 93-kilometre-mark on the desert highway to change one of its tires when the bus crashed into it, according to the sources.
Ten ambulances were dispatched to the accident site to transfer the victims and injured to a nearby hospital.
Furthermore, medical sources said all the victims are from Upper Egypt’s governorates.
Meanwhile, Minya’s Solidarity Directorate has announced the disbursement of an urgent relief of EGP 10,000 for the families of each victim and EGP 2,000 for each of the injured.
Egypt has witnessed a steady decline in the number of road accidents in recent years in parallel with national efforts to improve the country’s road network.
The country reported a drop of 28.9 percent in road traffic injuries and 8.9 percent in deaths in 2020 compared to the previous year, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics said in a report in November.
Egypt recorded 56,789 and 6,164 road traffic injuries and deaths, respectively, in 2020, according to the report.
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