DAMMAM, 24 March 2004 — Underage drivers are everywhere in the Kingdom’s cities. Outside one supermarket, a boy barely 14 sits at the wheel of a Cadillac, his mother by his side. He has driven into an empty fruit crate which got stuck to the car’s chassis. A passer-by finally crawls beneath the car and pulls out the wooden crate.

On another road, a little boy so small his head is barely visible above the steering wheel drives down the wrong side of a one-way street. Other drivers wave frantically for him to get off the road.

Out of 500,000 road accidents in Saudi Arabia last year, nine or 10 percent were caused by underage drivers.

A expat kid who looked no older than 13 was driving around the block. Asked if he was old enough to drive, he looked around and said: “I’m 16.” He added he was out on the street that day to teach his 15-year-old brother to drive. “I’ve been driving for a couple of years now but only around the block. I run small errands for my father, getting him things from the baqala.”

Had he ever been stopped by police? “I am very vigilant about them. If I see one coming, I pretend to park the car and they say nothing.”

But the boy’s father said he has now banned his son from driving. He was recently stopped by the police, but let off after a lecture. “We lived in a compound before and I let him drive around the block there because it was safe,” he said.

Faisal is a 16-year-old boy and has been driving since he was 12. He sees nothing wrong with driving young and without a license. “You don’t understand,” he said. “It is perfectly acceptable in Saudi culture for young boys to drive. You are a better driver when you learn young. It’s my father who taught me how to drive and I drive with his permission.”

Faisal said police stopped him a few times, but they always let him go. He has had only one accident, which was a fender bender. “I was driving by the stadium where a soccer match was on. Suddenly there was a big roar from the crowd, I got distracted and hit the car in front of me. I saw that it was something minor, so I quickly sped off.”

His father was not available for comment.

Cousins T and Y, now 17, are lucky to be alive. Y has a rod in his left leg and T’s shoulder is still vulnerable after a fracture. Two years back, when they were 15 both boys were in a car T was driving. They hit a truck and the car overturned. T’s father had to pay the other driver SR8,000. “We had wasta; that basically got us off the hook,” T said.

Not only that, the “wasta” has got T a police letter certifying that since his father is a heart patient T is allowed to drive in emergencies. But emergency or not, he tells me, the police never take action against people who have that letter.

T has been driving since he was 12. “I would simply steal the keys to my father’s car when he was asleep and sneak out at night. My dad did not find out till three years later, when I had the accident.”

The two cousins also sometimes rent a car and drive around. “My uncle, who is only eight years older and very friendly with us, rents the car for us.”

Do these boys have any remorse? “No, it’s fun,” Y said. “All the boys I know are driving. With an automatic, it’s easy. The police never stop you, unless you do something silly or have an accident.”

Y has had one accident too, but he says that was not his fault. “The tire burst and I hit two other cars.” Y’s older brother was in the car, but he was tired, so he let Y do the driving.