Scores of school kids killed in bus/train crash

[Locutus]

At least 50 people, mostly children, have been killed in Egypt after a speeding train crashed into a school bus carrying children to their kindergarten.

Up to 17 were also wounded in the crash on Saturday as the bus crossed tracks near a village in Manfaloot district in the southern province of Assiut, 300km south of Cairo.

The 60 passengers on the bus were mostly children aged between four and six years old.

Following the incident, Mohamed Rashad, the transport minister, and the head of the railways authority submitted their resignations.

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Scores of schoolchildren die in Egypt crash - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

 

[SLM]

60 kids! Four and six years old, man that's heart breaking. Like a real life Sweet Hereafter.

I hate train crossings.

The city I live in has a population less that 350,000 and I believe close to 80 train crossings because it's bisected by two major rail lines that cut right through the heart of the city with about 40 trains per day. While they are all relatively safe, exception being the odd idiot who tries to go around the barriers of course, they do block access to the hospitals and there is huge concern that it could delay life saving treatment for those en route in an ambulance.