{"id":17877,"date":"2026-10-12T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T07:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=17877"},"modified":"2026-10-24T14:54:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T12:54:28","slug":"egypt-road-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/egypt-road-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"Billions on Asphalt, Thousands of Lives Lost: Why Are Road Deaths Rising in Egypt?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 2 September 2026, a passenger bus overturned on the Dahab-Nuweiba road in South Sinai, at the “Talaat El-Saeda” area, leaving 22 dead and 28 injured, among them Jordanian citizens. The road had undergone development and upgrading works in phases; in a Cabinet statement<\/a> issued on 21 September 2023, the Minister of Transport presented the works to develop sections of the road, which is about 77 kilometres long, with the aim of facilitating the movement of lorries and goods to and from Nuweiba port, serving tourist traffic and securing the road against accidents. This background shows that the question of safety cannot be separated from an assessment of the impact of the announced development works, while it is necessary to distinguish between each phase and the date of its implementation.<\/p>\n

Before that, on 11 August 2026, the El-Dawawis road in Ismailia witnessed a collision between two lorries carrying day labourers. The Public Prosecution<\/a>, in its statement following the accident, announced the death of 18 people and the injury of 30, and the death toll then rose to 19 according to press follow-up on 15 August. The Prosecution said that the bursting of the rear right tyre of one of the two vehicles caused it to lose its balance and collide with the other vehicle, with investigations continuing. The incident was followed by government action to review the technical condition of the road and the safety procedures on it. On 25 August, two weeks later, another collision occurred on the same road, after which 17 injured people were taken to hospital, among them workers, according to statements by the Healthcare Authority in Ismailia.<\/p>\n

Despite hundreds of billions being spent on building roads and bridges and upgrading the existing network over the last decade, road accidents caused 44,940 deaths and 476,126 injuries during the period from 2019 to 2025, according to the total of data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Deaths rose by 10.8% and injuries by 10.7% within a single year, as the country recorded 5,829 deaths and 84,553 injuries from car accidents during 2025, compared with 5,260 deaths and 76,362 injuries in 2024. The death rate also rose from 4.9 to 5.4 per 100,000 population, and the injury rate from 71.7 to 78.4 injuries per 100,000 population.<\/p>\n

The number of deaths had fallen in the previous year, 2024, by 10.3% compared with 2023, from 5,861 to 5,260 deaths, while the number of injured rose during the same period from 71,016 to 76,362. The fall in deaths thus did not turn into a stable trend; the indicator returned to rising in 2025, at a time when the number of injuries continued to rise.<\/p>\n

In detail, the age tables<\/a> in the 2025 bulletin show that the age group from 15 to under 25 recorded the highest toll among the injured, at 29,101 injuries, and among the dead, at 1,580 deaths. This group is different from children under 15. Geographically, Dakahlia recorded the highest number of injuries, at 17,975, while Cairo topped the deaths with 779 cases. The accident severity rate, that is, the number of deaths per 100 injured, stood at about 6.9, close to the previous year’s level. The bulletin notes that no injury data were received from Port Said and Luxor after their hospitals joined the Universal Health Insurance system, and the absence of their data therefore may not be interpreted as an absence of injuries.<\/p>\n