Abu Dhabi: An Egyptian woman was killed in a head-on collision with a truck when she drove at high speed on the wrong side of the road on the Sokhna-Zaafaranah highway, local media reported.
The two-way, six-lane road is part of the Egypt-Africa highway and stretches from west Hurghada, west Safaga, Abu-Ramad, to Halayeb and Shalateen on the Egypt-Sudan border.
Security and medical sources identified the woman as Iman N., 23, the daughter of a pathologist and a professor of neurology at Qasr Al Aini university.
The trucker, Farid Ali Al Sayyid, 45, from Ismailia province, suffered various fractures, and was taken to hospital for treatment.
The trucker told prosecutors he was driving in the right lane, when a car collided head-on with his truck and exploded.
In his testimony, the woman’s father told prosecutors his daughter was not committing suicide. “She was driving from El Gouna in Hurghada on her way back home in 6th October City in Giza. She wanted to take Qatameya-Cairo highway, but she got lost and had to drive in the opposite direction to reach the right direction, leading to Qatameya,” the father said.
A video of the incident taken by the driver of another car on the opposite side showed the car was travelling wrong-way at 170km/hour.
The woman burned to death in the accident, according to a report received by the Suez traffic operations room, and the ambulance transported the woman’s body to the nearest hospital, after the fire was put out.
Watch the video:
After the video was published on social media, followers were angry and said woman “committed suicide madly.”
“The accident is terrifying by all standards,” says Shaban Al Darandali, a road consultant. “It is clear that the woman was trying to commit suicide by driving at such crazy speed on that international highway.”
“The accident is completely unjustified. The other side has great traffic flow, and it was possible to take the first intersection to put her on the right road, but she avoided that,” he told Sky News Arabia TV.
According to official statistics issued last June, the number of deaths due to car accidents in 2019 increased 12.9 per cent, to 3,484, compared to 3,087 in 2018.
The number of accidents witnessed in Egypt in 2019 was 9,992, compared to 8,480 in 2018.
The rate of car accidents increased to 27.4 accidents per day in 2019, compared to 23.2 accidents in 2018, and the main cause of car accidents was the human element. It accounted for 79.7%, followed by technical defects in the vehicle, 13.5 per cent of the total causes of accidents on the roads in 2019.
Driving on the wrong side of the road may be due to driver inattention or impairment, or because of insufficient or confusing road markings or signage.
Some motorists intentionally drive in the wrong direction because they missed an exit, for thrill-seeking, or as a shortcut.
