Egypt Collision - 32 Fatalities

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/eg ... r-BB1eZX4K

Fair Use:

At least 32 people have been killed and 108 injured after two trains collided in Egypt on Friday, according to government statements.

Seventy-two ambulances were sent to the scene and reinforcement medical teams were sent to the incident in the Tahta district of the Upper Egypt governorate of Sohag from the capital Cairo, the Health Ministry said.

Images from the scene showed crowds of people gathered around the twisted wreckage of the trains.

The collision happened after an unidentified person pulled an emergency brake, Egypt's railway authority said in a statement.

The authority said that at 11:42 a.m. local time (5:42 a.m. ET) a train heading from Aswan to Cairo hit the rear of a train heading from Luxor to Alexandria, which was stuck on the railway line after an emergency brake was activated.

Here's video "while it lasts":

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/26/africa/e ... index.html

From photos/ pictures i have seen these trains are always "packed to the gills".
Pulling the emergency cord should not result an accident , and is apparently a common occurrence, Passengers who want to alight near their village , which is not a regular stop pull it to get off. Maybe I am thinking of India with that practice.

Mr. Benton, regardless of the reason the train made an emergency stop, it is difficult to believe that the main N-S line running alongside the Suez Canal, presumably well trafficked, did not have some kind of block signaling system.

Such wrecks appear to be "quite endemic" over there:

https://www.nytimes.com/search?query=egypt+train+wreck

Now will this incident, which reportedly is not "isolated", result in some kind of Positive Train Control mandate? Place your bets everyone!!!!

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Sat Mar 27, 2021 6:13 am it is difficult to believe that the main N-S line running alongside the Suez Canal, presumably well trafficked, did not have some kind of block signaling system.

That was also my first thought. There should never be two trains in the same block section. Equipment failure or human error? Some of the rear end collisions in South Africa in recent years have been when a following train was authorised to pass a signal at danger because the signals were not working due to cable theft. The rules state that in this case the speed must be low enough that the driver can stop the train within the distance they can see ahead, but drivers were not conforming to that rule, with tragic results. But it's all just speculation until we see more detailed technical reports.

"Egyptian prosecutors claim they found that gross negligence by railway employees was behind a deadly train crash that caused public outcry across the country. Drugs were allegedly also involved."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/africa/30 ... rain-crash