CAIRO, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Public Prosecution has found human errors and gross negligence by railway staff behind last month's deadly two-train collision in Sohag, state-run Ahram newspaper said on Monday.
A train crashed into the back of a standing train on March 26, leaving 20 people killed in the southern province of Sohag.
The prosecution report revealed that the driver's assistant of the moving train and the person in the watchtower who was in charge of changing the train's course at the site of the accident have been under the influence of narcotic substances. A drug test showed the two persons have taken cannabis and tramadol.
Meanwhile, the driver and assistant in the train that caused the crash were not inside the driving cabin at the moment of the accident, the investigation results revealed.
It added that the chairman of the control department that is responsible for monitoring the movement of trains was not present in his place at the time of the crash either.
The prosecution probe also said that both trains' Automatic Train Control (ATC) systems were deactivated.
However, the railway officials have confirmed that the ATC systems are not usually stopped in the area of the accident. Enditem
