CAIRO — Neither the driver nor the assistant of an Egyptian
train that crashed at speed into another last month were at the controls during
the deadly accident, the prosecution service said on Sunday.
اضافة اعلان
The prosecutor also alleged that the assistant of the
stationary train and a track signalman were under the influence of the powerful
painkiller tramadol, while the former had also used cannabis.
At least 20 people died and 199 were injured in the March 26
crash near Sohag in southern Egypt, according to the authorities’ latest count.
According to an investigative report cited by the prosecutor
on Sunday, the driver and his assistant “were not in the driver’s cabin” at the
time of the crash, “contrary to their claims”.
Video images caught on a surveillance camera show the moving
train hitting a stationary train at speed, sending one carriage high into the
air, in an immense cloud of dust.
Egypt has suffered several deadly train accidents in recent
years.
Egypt’s Transport Minister Kamel El-Wazir — a former general
named to the post after a deadly 2019 collision — had already blamed last
month’s crash on “human” error.
He has pledged to put in place an automated network by 2024.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has vowed to hold to account
those responsible for the crash.
At least eight people, including the driver and his
assistant, were arrested shortly after the crash that happened in the village
of Samaa Gharb, 460 kilometers south of Cairo.
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