The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Getting around Cairo has never been easy, whether it’s the traffic, bumpy roads, the lack of U-turns, or the sheer stupidity of some Cairene drivers; getting from point A to point B is never as simple as it sounds. And while we spend most of our journeys at speeds of 10 km/h or less, sometimes when we do get the chance to speed up, tragedy hits. A recent study by Neuromed showed just how devastating car crashes can be.

Reported by elyoum7.com, a study conducted in Egypt in 2016 by NeuroMed, a centre specialised in Neurology and Sleep Medicine, showed that there were 14,710 car crashes that year, leading to the deaths of 5,343 people, and 18,646 injured.

Details of this study show that this amounts to an accident rate of 1.6 per 1000 cars per day, leading to 14.6 deaths. Moreover, 44% of crashes are due to larger vehicles transporting passengers or goods, while 38.6% are caused by private vehicles, and 17.4% due to other types of cars. It was also pointed out that human error was the main cause of these accidents with a huge 72%, making us think twice about all our driving habits. The second most significant factor is general faults with the vehicle, with 18% of crashes happening because of this reason. While the rest of the factors are a measly 3% for road conditions, and 7% for other reasons.

A recent initiative by the same centre aimed to reduce these numbers by tackling a huge factor, which is sleep deprivation and sleep disorders. The centre has collaborated with the Ministry of Transportation to organise this initiative, and tackle what they believe to be the main cause of accidents: human error, especially with larger vehicles where the drivers have to work for countless hours on the road.

From this we can take away that the majority of causes for these accidents are in our hands. Periodical and thorough checks of your personal car, ensuring you’re in a proper condition to drive, and actually driving safely are all things we can do to reduce the risk of being involved in a car crash. If everyone does that, we can theoretically eliminate 90% of the causes of crashes.