Tariq A. Al-Maeena
The Kingdom’s roads have indeed become the killing fields. Hardly a day goes by without any horrific traffic accidents needlessly claiming a number of lives. In most of the reported cases, failure to observe traffic laws is often cited as the main reason behind such unnecessary tragedies.
I have covered this subject in more than one opinion piece, not because I have run out of subjects to write about, but because I am alarmed at what I see when I take on to the roads. It is not always the lawbreakers who end up dead. In many instances, innocent motorists are entangled in the lunacy of these road warriors and they are the ones who unfortunately fall victim, with some paying the ultimate price with their lives.
A recent piece (It’s not the people’s fault!) I had written on our driving behavior elicited some responses, two of which I felt merited consideration for their differing analysis.
With slight editing, here they are:
The first response is by an Australian with ties to the Kingdom. She says, “I was talking to a man much older than me. He would be close to 85. When he was just a child his father bought him a tractor and taught him to drive around the farm. Then he went into the local police station and went for a driving test with the police officer. The police officer thought he was a great driver and understood the respect and rules of driving so he gave him a license to drive a car. That man has driven cars ever since and always obeys the rules.”
“In talking with this man, and about how the system used to be many years ago, I came to realize that the responsibility is on the person that is driving the car (vehicle) and not on speeding cameras and someone pulling them up. Today, people seem to have lost that self discipline in road sense and many other senses, as you have published previously. A person makes a personal choice if they will drive within the speed limit or not. They also make a personal choice if they will live a respectful life or not.”
The next response is by a Western professor teaching at a local university. He writes: “You ask a very interesting question at the end of your editorial regarding the responsibility of authorities vis-a-vis the horrendous conditions on Saudi roads, the vast majority of which are the result of extremely poor driving habits bred from ignorance and selfishness. One of the biggest problems that no one wants to confront here is the direct effect of the Kingdom's socio-political system on personal behavior. If one is not raised in an environment in which he/she comes to understand that "we are all in this together" and "my actions affect the lives of others," then there will be no reason to do anything — in this instance, drive — with any regard for other members of society. Only when citizens understand that they are full-fledged members of the social body will they begin to respect the rights of others just as they demand that their own rights be respected. There appears nothing in the cultural history of this country that re-enforces such a view. The lack of this major cultural underpinning is the ultimate reason for the disgusting trash littering some of this country's most beautiful features to people cutting in line to the abhorrent driving habits we all fight with daily.”
The professor continues: “That said, there are more immediate remedies that you touched on, i.e. implementing driver education in the secondary schools and law enforcement by the police. This, however, is also mired in some wholly untenable aspects of Saudi culture. I could cite two instances I have been told about in the past month in which clearly negligent drivers — one a middle school student who had no right to drive, the other an adult who was drunk and had alcohol in his car which was found by the police — were let go by the police because of family connections. In the latter case, the incident ceased to have happened some 36 hours following its occurrence even as the passenger in the vehicle that was hit by the drunk driver continues in physical therapy as treatment for the injuries she sustained... While anyone who allows a 10 or 12-year-old to drive a car is a complete idiot (how else could such a parent possibly be described?) who should go to jail for endangering ALL OF US (not least of which the child), corruption, cronyism and individuals who feel they are beyond criticism breed the mentality that ‘I can get away with anything. There are no consequences.’ Everyone else does. As a member of the faculty at a local university, I see the fruits of this daily.”
“Keep up your fight for sanity on Saudi roads. Police enforcement alone could fix it in the short-term. Nothing works better than hitting someone in their wallet.”
I can only assure the professor that I will continue to raise alarms about the dangers that confront many on the roads needlessly. Along with the application of discipline and enforcement, awareness must be factored in to combat this social menace.
— The author can be reached at talmaeena@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @talmaeena
