According to local authorities, a truck and a minibus carrying workers collided on an Egyptian road, killing 19 people, the majority of them teenage girls.
The workers were traveling to work on a regional road in Ashmoun, in the Menoufia province of Menoufia, north of Cairo, when the collision occurred.
According to the state-owned newspaper Akhbar al-Youm, the truck collided with the minibus as it drove the laborers from their home village of Kafr al-Sanabsa to their place of employment.
According to a list of the names and ages that the state-owned daily Al-Ahram published, the majority of the workers were teenagers, with two of them only being 14 years old. The crash victims were referred to as “martyrs for their daily bread” by Egyptian media.
According to government figures, there are 1.3 million minors who work as children in Egypt, and accidents frequently involve underage laborers in overcrowded minibuses in rural areas.
Only three people were able to survive the accident on Friday, according to an announcement from Egypt’s Ministry of Labour. They were then transferred to General Ashmoun Hospital.
Egyptian authorities have been given the order to pay compensation to the deceased’s families in up to 200 000 Egyptian pounds (roughly $4, 000) each. Additionally, each injured person will receive 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($400).
Ibrahim Abu Leimon, the governor of Menoufia’s provincial, stated that an investigation would be conducted into the crash’s cause. According to preliminary reports, a significant factor may have been excessive speed.
Abu Leimon also requested that the regional road’s safety measures be reviewed by the country’s transportation ministry. Five members of a single family were killed in a roadside collision involving two cars in April.
Every year, thousands of people die in fatal traffic accidents in Egypt.
Source: Aljazeera
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