Train Wreck Update

Andrew finally found an article about the train crash; it's in Arabic so most of you (including me) won't be able to glean much from it. Andrew posted about it on his blog:

According to their report, the accident was caused by a brake failure as the train travelled from the nearby Sidi Gaber train station. It was indeed empty, fortunately, and there were no fatalities. Two of the crew members were injured in addition to a vendor—since there are snack booths at the end of each platform, he must have gotten smashed. There are conflicting statements as to the cause of the accident. Some claim neglect and disrepair; others sabotage. I’m leaning towards neglect—those trains are ancient.

Apparently one crew member sustained light injuries while the other had more major injuries, like broken ribs and things like that. As for whether it was sabotage or disrepair, I'm with Andrew on this one. The trains are not in tiptop condition--most of them have shattered, but still intact, windows that no one bothers to replace. The outsides are rusty, and inside the seats are falling apart, with metal parts hanging off the seats and, of course, garbage everywhere, things like that. It's not terrible for second class--we've only taken a first class train ride once (when we were out here with BYU) and the interiors of those trains were pretty nice, although the outside was still pretty scary looking. I shudder to think of what third class is like. No, really, I'm shuddering.

But Arabs do love a good conspiracy theory. Sabotage, indeed.