In this paper a study for the major causes of accidents in Egyptian National Railways and Greater Cairo metro network that occurred in the last decade from year 2000 to year 2010 is presented. It is noticed that rates of accidents during that period especially from 2006 to 2009 is very high and the nature of accidents is also very catastrophic. Therefore, annual frequencies of two major types of accidents have been selected to be studied in detail. It is found that signal passed at danger is a major cause of many severe and fatal accidents during that study period. The accidents of that type have resulted in many fatalities, injuries and deterioration of different railway equipment. The second type of accidents is fire of rolling stocks which had higher records as well as consequences of few of them were very catastrophic either on passengers or on the equipment. Detailed analysis has been carried out for causes and impacts of those types including fatal and non fatal accidents. Also, an evaluation of all causes which affect badly on safety of the running trains in tunnels and on ground surface of these lines have been carried out in this paper. Some important standards and regulations of fire of rolling stocks including "British standards", "draft of new generation for European standards which will be issued by end of year 2012" and "Guidelines of Safety and Service Quality Measures for Transportation by ENR" are presented in this paper. Lessons that have been learnt from the most severe fire accident that had been occurred in February 2002 and recommended by the technical inspection committee have been presented. Conclusion and recommendations that contribute in reduction of those two types of accidents have been introduced at the last chapter of the paper. |
