25,000 People Killed or Injured on Egypt's Roads in 2015

According to a report from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), 25,500 people were injured or killed in road accidents in Egypt in 2015. The report shows a 16 percent drop in overall deaths and injuries since 2014. 

The figures show 6,203 fatalities, 15,847 severe injuries, and 3,479 minor injuries. 32 percent of the people injured on the road lost their lives in 2015, juxtaposed with 25.8 percent in 2014. 42.6 percent of accidents in 2015 resulted in fatalities compared to 43.3 percent in 2014.

"Human element" was said to have caused 64 percent of 2015's accidents, with vehicle condition blamed for 21.9 percent. Only 2.4 percent of accidents were caused by the state of road infrastructure.

When speaking to Mada Masr, Ahmed Shelbaya, head of NADA Foundation for Safer Egyptian Roads said that it is misleading to blame the majority of accidents on human error. “Since there’s a person driving and a person crossing the road, naturally the human element is the base, but the surrounding environment and the system have a considerable effect on that human element,” Shelbaya says. 

Road accidents cost an estimated 30.2 billion EGP in 2015 in lost output along with another 1.8 billion EGP paid out by insurance companies, according to CAPMAS.

CAPMAS' projections estimate that in 2020, accidents will cost 31 billion EGP in lost output with 6,211 deaths and 22,255 injuries.

The report comes during a massive campaign on social media to reform Egypt's traffic laws by a mother who lost her daughter in an accident on the ring road.