04 April 2004	Sunday	13 Safar 1425

CAIRO: A motorcyclist, carrying his child on the front and wife, sitting sideways behind, whizzes past along a busy one-way street in Cairo, chatting on his mobile. None is wearing helmets.

Meanwhile, an ancient car speeds past in the wrong direction. Behind it, a donkey pulls a cart full of garbage and nearby, a policeman allows a car to double-park in exchange for 2 Egyptian pounds (30 cents).

This is a normal day on a street in the Egyptian capital.

Cairo is notorious for its traffic hazards. Foreign tourists are often advised to be cautious and when they land, they realize why. One rule to remember when driving in Cairo: Don't follow rules. A typical three-lane street has five rows of cars. Traffic violations, all with the potential to lead to disastrous results, occur frequently.

Official data on the death toll from road accidents stood at 6,000 in 2003. However, experts say the number is much higher.

"Such data is considered a national secret because making it public will create a scandal," says Egyptian traffic expert Hassan Mahdy.

In an interview Mahdy says the number of casualties from road accidents exceeds 10,000 a year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has dedicated this year's World Health Day to road safety. The WHO says more than 1.26 million people die and 20 million are injured annually in road accidents worldwide. Some 80 per cent of these accidents occur in developing countries.

According to the WHO, Africa and the Arabian peninsula have the highest road accident rate worldwide.

A recent report says the rate of road accident deaths per 10,000 cars in Egypt is 20 compared with to 2-4 in developed countries.-dpa