CAIRO, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian prosecutors ordered the detention of a train driver and two others pending investigations into a deadly railway crash that took place north of Cairo on Wednesday, official Ahram Online news website reported on Friday.
The driver of the passenger train, his assistant, and a railway worker responsible for changing tracks will be detained for four days on investigation into charges including unintended murder and injury, gross negligence, endangering people's lives and harming public funds, according to Ahram.
On Wednesday, a train collision killed at least 12 people in the Beheira province north of the capital Cairo.
Initial investigations showed that the crash was caused by an error in changing tracks, which led to the passenger train traveling on the same track as the cargo train.
The driver of the cargo train was arrested previously but released shortly afterwards with no charges filed.
Following the accident, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi ordered the formation of a technical committee to examine all locomotives and railways in the country.
He added that the new committee would halt those unqualified lines until they receive maintenance and become safer.
Sisi also said that Egypt needs from 200 to 250 billion Egyptian pounds (up to 14 billion U.S. dollars) to establish proper railways, adding that this amount of money is not available.
Egypt witnessed a number of deadly train accidents over the past few years in which hundreds were killed and wounded.
Last August, two trains collided in the coastal province of Alexandria north of Cairo, leaving at least 49 people dead and more than 100 injured.
The worst train accident in Egypt took place at Giza's district of Ayyat in 2002, which killed 350 passengers when fire broke out in a train coming from Upper Egypt, forcing passengers to hopelessly jump out to survive.
Another train tragedy hit the country in November 2012 when a train hit a school bus at a crossing barrier area in Upper Egypt's Assiut province, killing over 50 children.
