Ramses Station rail disaster | |
---|---|
Details | |
Date | 27 February 2019 around 08:00 am (CAT) |
Location | Ramses Square, Cairo |
Coordinates | 30°03′47″N31°14′48″E / 30.06306°N 31.24667°E |
Country | Egypt |
Line | Alexandria-Cairo line |
Operator | Egyptian National Railways |
Incident type | Derailment and engine failure |
Statistics | |
Trains | 1 |
Deaths | 25 |
Injured | 50 |
The Ramses Station rail disaster occurred on 27 February 2019 in Ramses Station of Cairo, Egypt. [1] Twenty-five people were killed and forty injured. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
In the early morning of 27 February 2019, in Cairo's main train station, Ramses Station, a locomotive hit the buffers at the end of the track at platform 6 at high speed, [7] causing an explosion that sparked a major blaze and fireball that blackened the walls of the station. The locomotive could later be seen inside, leaning to one side next to a platform. [1] One eyewitness said: [2]
I saw a man pointing from the locomotive as it entered the platform, and screaming, ‘There are no brakes, there are no brakes’ before he jumped out of the locomotive. He was probably the driver, but I don’t know what happened to him.
It was later confirmed that the driver was not inside the locomotive during the accident. [7] According to Egypt's Prosecutor General, Nabil Sadek, one train driver had left his train to fight with another train driver; thereafter, the unmanned train struck the barrier. [8] [7]
Transport Minister Hisham Arafat resigned after the incident. [3]
An Egyptian member of parliament publicly called for the employees that were responsible for the accident to face the death penalty. [9]
It was revealed that the train's driver had left the brakes off. [10]
The Sunshine rail disaster occurred on 20 April 1908 at the junction at Sunshine railway station when a Melbourne-bound train from Bendigo collided with the rear of a train from Ballarat. 44 people were killed and over 400 injured, almost all of them from the Ballarat train, as the Bendigo train was cushioned by its two locomotives.
The Chester General rail crash occurred on 8 May 1972 at Chester, northwest England, resulting in extensive fire damage, but no casualties. It was caused by brake failure through human error.
Ramses Railway Station, also called Misr Station, is the main railway station of Cairo, Egypt. The name is derived from the Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, whose statue was erected by Nasser on the square there in 1955.
Egyptian National Railways is the national railway of Egypt and managed by the parastatal Egyptian Railway Authority.
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The Manfalut railway accident occurred on 17 November 2012 when a school bus, which was carrying about 70 school children between four and six years old, was hit by a train on a rail crossing near Manfalut, Egypt, 350 km south of the Egyptian capital Cairo. At least 50 children and the bus driver died in the crash, and about 17 people were injured. Witnesses reported that barriers at the crossing were not closed when the crash occurred.
The Alexandria train collision occurred on 11 August 2017 near Khorshid station in the suburbs of the eastern edge of Alexandria, Egypt.
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Events in the year 2019 in Egypt.
On 26 March 2021, two trains collided in the Tahta district of the Sohag Governorate in Egypt. Eighteen people were killed and at least 200 others were injured. The incident was initiated by an unidentified person or persons intentionally triggering the emergency brakes on the leading train which was then hit by the following train.
Hisham Arafat was an Egyptian politician who was Transport Minister in the cabinet headed by Sherif Ismail from 19 February 2017 to 27 February 2019 and resigned shortly after the Ramses Station rail disaster.