Around 8,000 people die in road accidents each year in Egypt... Many of them tourists on tours.

Sharm-El-Sheik is a new, purpose built resort on Egypt’s Red Sea. Its modern appearance promotes confidence, reassuring you to expect the same safety standards as at home. Unfortunately, the underlying infrastructure is very much third world...

The roads in Sharm are generally good but very wide, including those directly outside of your hotel. Unfortunately, this encourages the taxis to drive along them at motorway speeds, ignoring all visible highway regulations in the frantic race to win a fare. Sadly, many tourists are run down each week – some fatally.

The roads from Sharm to Cairo, (to the Pyramids), are also in reasonable condition. If you book an excursion, your coach will arrive looking good too, (although you’ll be lucky to find a seat belt), further increasing your sense of security. Most excursions leave at night to arrive at their destination by breakfast time and in the dark you’ll be unable to gauge the break-neck speeds at which you’ll be travelling. Coaches carry a ‘relief driver’ aboard, which is of little use if the driver behind the wheel falls asleep before they change. Every three weeks or so, a coach will crash along these routes as a result of driver fatigue.

If you are lucky enough to survive a crash in this remote desert region, you will likely wait 2 to 3 hours for help to arrive. Add to this the return transit time and you’re looking 5 to 6 hours before you receive any treatment. A delay that costs many lives every year.

As you wait in the darkness, you will expect to hear the sound of rescue helicopters. But they will not be sent. No matter how serious the incident.

There will be two plain-clothed Police Guards on the coach but they are not obligated to help you in an emergency. You will be alone to fend for yourself.

When ambulances finally arrive, they will resemble tatty, broken down builders' vans. They will probably not carry the life-saving basics that you would take for granted at home, such as pain relief, oxygen or even a stretcher.The Medical Facility that you eventually reach will be ill equipped, dirty and under staffed. There will be no sense of urgency to treat you, as you would be expecting. But you’re dazed and there will be little English speaking people to help.

You will however get a great deal of unwanted attention from the Police who will insist that you make a statement even if you or someone in your party is seriously injured.

The concept of pain is different there to too and it is considered to ‘cleanse the soul’. Not at all nice if it’s your pain under consideration. All of the most effective, (opiate based), pain relief is banned, so any medicines you finally receive will likely only dull the pain at best.

From that first Medical Facility you will be transferred by road again, to a hospital. It might be the Suez Hospital for example, which is several more hours away again in a second rate ambulance.

On arrival you will find that you could not be further from the calm professionalism that we expect at a hospital. There will be crowds of shouting, screaming people and you’ll be extremely disorientated. It will be nearer to a riot scene than an A & E dept.

The hospital will appear medieval in comparison to your previous experiences. Anyone including photographers are at liberty to stroll in and out of the emergency room and doctors will openly fight for the right to treat you.

There will be more intense Police questioning and more statements to sign. You will not know what you are signing as it will be written in Arabic.

You might even encounter some less scrupulous Policemen trying to get a 'tip' from you... imagine that while watching your loved ones bleeding to death!

After some emergency operations and more intense Police questions, another transfer is possible bringing your total number of ambulance hours on bumpy roads close to 10.

Your destination is most likely a ward with 6 to 8 beds, where you’ll linger while hospital administrators show great concern regarding your insurance policy.

Egypt has very many wonderful & warm hearted people who show real compassion and want to selflessly help the victims. The staff at the hospitals are most caring but sadly lack facilities.

This website is not blaming or insulting the Egyptian people, as they too are often themselves victims of these same accidents.

This site is not American. It has nothing to do with the USA, Israel or Palestine! It is in no way political or religious. It is purely addressing a problem that regularly hurts people of all nationalities.

The tourist industry exists for profit and everything is done to protect this valuable asset. Coach crashes are a common occurrence, happening on average every 3 to 4 weeks. The aim is to sweep away these incidents as soon as possible & get the coaches rolling out again.

The driver is generally made scapegoat & said to be the cause. And if he isn’t killed in the crash, he will be imprisoned. Chances are, he is the cause, having driven for too many hours without a break. But another regularly used excuse is a blown tyre. And then you’ll realise in hindsight... many of those earlier Police questions where actually very leading, directing your statement to fit their required outcome of the 'investigation'.

Finally, forget compensation. The legal system cleverly protects the Tour Operators from your claims. Should you try to make a legal case you will need an Egyptian Lawyer who will require payment in advance. The average case takes 6 to 9 years and should you somehow win compensation, then the sum will be nowhere near the amount that you’d be expect in UK or US courts.

A very long & drawn out process that allows the death tolls to rise unhindered. 

The regulations for drivers need to be addressed.

The response times, (and quality of help sent), also needs to be improved.

Until then, awareness should be raised that risk levels are higher than people assume.

To review this topic for yourself, please google the following keywords to see for yourself:

'Egypt tourist die injured bus coach crash'

Another side of the problem...

For many Egyptians, driving is their only means of income in a very poor economy. Taking this away would literally mean that their families go hungry.

So there are far wider issues that must be addressed to protect these people & avoid causing suffering, to those who are so totally dependent on tourism.