At least 14 were killed at dawn on Sunday when a microbus crashed with a truck on the Red Sea-Assiut Road near Assiut in Upper Egypt on Monday.

Thirteen were also reported injured in the tragic accident, and were transferred to Assiut University Hospital.

According to a report published in July 2011 by the Central Authority for Public Transport, road and rail accidents claimed over 7,000 lives in Egypt in 2010 — a rise of 7.9 per cent over the previous year.

In addition to car accidents, dozens of lives have been lost in the past few months on train accidents.

On 15 January, 19 were killed in a train accident in Badrashin; this comes on the heels of another tragic accident in November that killed at least 50 children when their school bus was hit by a train.