Hundreds of drivers arrested for traffic offences in Cairo, Giza

Around 300 drivers have been detained by police in the Cairo and Giza metropolitan area over the last ten days on charges of consuming drugs and alcohol while driving and other traffic violations.

The arrests are linked with a campaign to crack down on driving offences in the wake of a deadly school bus crash earlier this month.

Some of the defendants face charges of driving without a licence, other of driving in the wrong direction.

They have been detained for four days while the charges are investigated.

Traffic police have been enforcing laws more strictly since a traffic accident claimed the lives of 18 peoplewhen a school bus, a lorry and a private car collided in Beheira governorate in the Nile Delta.

A recent government report stated that 100,000 traffic accidents took place in Egypt between 2008 to 2012, with 33,000 people killed as a result, and another 150,000 injured.

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