Due to negligence of engineers and due to not following the engineering ethics we experience a lot of disasters, the al ayyat train disaster is one among the disasters.
This train disaster occurred near Al Ayyat, 46 miles away from Cairo, Egypt, in February 2002 causing the loss of 383 lives.
In this disaster the passenger train was travelling between Cairo and Luxor when a cooking gas cylinder explosion in the fifth carriage created fire that spread to seven carriages. Ever since the train was overloaded with people in its 11 carriages, congestion was also another problem during the rescue process as well as the overloaded weight caused brake failure which resulted into another source of fire.
The fire incident caused lack of communication between the driver and the rear carriages hence the burning train travelled for four miles and finally stopped near Al-Ayyat. Many of the passengers that jumped from the train did not survive.
The disaster happened due to neglegence of stove users faill to follow proper and safe operation procedures hence the stove exploded. This incident could have not become worse if the safety precautions were to be strong by providing enough fire fighting equipments as well as well trained workers to combat fire.
In order to avoid such disasters it is important to insure that all safety precautions are athered. These includes:- insuring that operators of various equipments must be trained and no non trained personel should be given access to any equipment in the train. Fire fighting equipments must be adequetly available. The train and its auxiliaries must be frequently maintained to insure that they are in good operating conditions, as well as avoiding overloading of the train.
Egypt railways
