On Friday, at least 41 people were killed and 179 injured after two trains collided in Egypt’s coastal governorate of Alexandria. While the last major train accident occurred in 2013, multiple train accidents occur on average on a daily basis across Egypt. According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), the past 12 years have seen an average of 1,041 train accidents on an annual basis. A total of 13,539 train accidents occurred between 2004 and 2016, reports CAPMAS, citing numbers released by the National Railway Authority of Egypt. In the past 12 years, there have been more than 1,000 accidents on an annual basis every year apart for four years: 2004 (975), 2011 (489), 2012 (447), and 2013 (781). In 2016, 1,249 train accidents occurred, an increase of 19 accidents from 2015. Egypt recorded its highest number of train accidents in 2009, with 1,577 accidents occurring that year. It is unclear what type of accidents are considered by the National Railway Authority of Egypt to be accidents and the number of people killed or injured during such accidents. Egypt’s railway network carries more than 500 million passengers on a…
