Egypt, which has a dismal track record for transportation safety, has thousands of fatal traffic accidents every year.

Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has expressed his condolences to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi after a tragic bus accident in Egypt left dozens dead. 

“The Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent Tuesday a cable of condolences to HE President of the Arab Republic of Egypt Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on the victims of the passenger transit bus accident in Minya governorate,” state-run Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported on Tuesday.

Early on Tuesday, a passenger bus crashed into a parked trailer truck on a highway in southern Egypt, killing 23 people and wounding at least 30, according to Egyptian authorities.

The Cairo-bound bus crash happened in the province of Minya, on the key road connecting the nation’s capital Cairo with the country’s south. 

The truck driver was changing tyres by the side of the road near near the town of Malawi, around 220 kilometres south of Cairo, when the bus ploughed into it. Local authorities shared videos from the site which revealed the bus’s front half to be severely damaged. 

Victims of the tragic incident were transported to nearby hospitals. At least 16 of the injured were released from hospitals after receiving medical care, health authorities said.

Egypt, which has a dismal track record for transportation safety, has thousands of fatal traffic accidents every year. Speeding, irresponsible driving, terrible roads, or a lack of observance of traffic laws are the main causes of collisions.

According to the WHO’s Global Status Report on Road Safety, Egypt has one of the highest rates of fatalities from traffic accidents. The Road Safety in Ten Countries (RS10) Project, which ran from 2011 to 2020, has Egypt as the only country in the region to be included in the project.

In the Sinai Peninsula, a microbus collided with a public transportation bus back in January, resulting in at least 16 deaths and 18 injuries.

At least 21 people were also killed and three others were wounded when a bus overturned in the southern province of Assiut in April of last year while attempting to pass a truck on a highway.