Algeria: “Death trains” kill 100 in 280 accidents

Over 100 people are killed in train accidents in Algeria per year including those who fell down and were hit by thrown stones, according to well-informed sources.

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• Trains national park contains 195 passengers trains with 625 drivers while figures from the general department of railways show that 67 trains are under repair due to accidents.
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• A total of 248 train accidents were recorded in less than 5 months. “It may be easy for you to have control on a car or a truck but you are going to death while driving a train,” a train driver told Echorouk.
• “When we drive a train, we know that we are responsible for the safety of more than 200 people,” he added.
• According to him, ensuring the safety of passengers is impossible. “Terrorists still target railways. In 2007, a hand-made bomb was about to go off at a railway in Bouira (east of Algiers).”
• The same sources said 11 drivers and 10 passengers on trains were hit by thrown stones in 69 accidents in 2008. Collisions took 7 lives and injured 30. A total of 8 people fell down from trains. One of them was killed while the others were injured.