Horrendous Accident Downtown Cairo

I received an email on 16 January 2008 that contained the attached pictures and describing this horrendous accident. I am not sure if it is an accurate description of the incident or it is another one of these occasions in which people enjoy to stretch their creative minds.

According to the email a Saudi lady driving a Hummer at the remarkable speed of 160KM/hour downtown Cairo in Talaat Harb Street slammed into a taxi killing both the driver and the passenger (a tourist from Azerbaijan).

The email also stated that the lady driver who was obviously drunk was arrested, and spent 2 days in the police station before tested for drunk driving on the 3rd day of her arrest. The case was sent to court in just 5 days, a record to Egyptian court waiting time standards that can be as long as a couple of years. The Lady was released after paying a blood money sum of 350K EGP ($63K USD).

But according to Arab News www.arabnews.com the story is a little bit different:

“CAIRO, 14 January 2008 — A Cairo court has postponed to Jan. 26 the hearing of a 27-year-old Saudi woman, who has been accused of the manslaughter of two men in a car accident and injuring two other people, Al-Madinah newspaper reported yesterday.

Kasr Al-Nile Court has postponed the hearing of Saudi woman Sarah Fahd, who has been charged with the manslaughter of Egyptian driver Muhammad Hassan Sayed and an Azerbaijani student. Fahd has been released on a 10,000 Egyptian pounds bail and forbidden from leaving the country until the end of the trial.

The Jan. 26 court hearing is expected to discuss the 700,000 Egyptian pounds (SR500,000) paid by Fahd in compensation to the families of the two dead men and those injured.

The 27-year-old’s car was involved in a collision with a taxi a number of days ago on Talat Harb Street in downtown Cairo. She was then taken to Kasr Al-Ainy Hospital having suffered injuries herself.

Sarah, the daughter of a Saudi father and an Egyptian mother, visits Egypt often and owns an apartment in the Al-Agoza District. She was recently in Egypt studying English and computing.

Speaking about the accident, Fahd said she was distracted by her baby, who was with her at the time. She also denies witness reports that three other women were with her and fled after the crash.

“The family of the Egyptian driver asked for 3 million pounds in blood money to drop the case. We negotiated and reached an agreement to pay 350,000 pounds,” said Mona, Fahd’s sister.”