At least 40 dead in Egypt level crossing pile up


CAIRO (AFP) - At least 40 people were killed and 60 injured on Wednesday when a truck failed to stop at a level crossing and pushed waiting traffic into the path of a speeding train in northern Egypt, police said. The truck ploughed into traffic at the level crossing, including a bus and at least four other vehicles, pushing them into the path of the passenger train. Two train carriages overturned and another two were derailed, a police official said, requesting anonymity. The accident occurred 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of Marsa Matruh in the Mediterranean coastal region of Dabaa, the official said. The crash is the latest in a series of transport disasters in Egypt, most of which have been blamed on negligence and poor maintenance. At least 58 people were killed and 144 injured in August 2006 when a passenger train slammed into the back of another on the same track, derailing carriages and setting one

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