We in Saudi Arabia have unique ways; one of these is the way we drive. I have never seen driving habits in other countries that resemble our perilous habits. We have drivers that rocket through traffic, swerving haphazardly from one lane to another like a bunch of snakes. There is no explanation for this. Suffice to say it is merely a way of putting other people’s lives in danger.
This is an old problem in our streets, and it has caused many accidents. We have lost many lives because of this, yet police do nothing to solve this problem. If police bothered to doing something to protect people’s lives, then this problem would be greatly mitigated.
We have a great lack of awareness in terms of traffic laws. Not only that, we have young drivers intentionally violating traffic laws. These youth are challenging society by not respecting traffic laws.
I saw five accidents last Ramadan as I was driving on Jeddah’s Madinah Road: One accident per kilometer. They caused huge traffic jams. Madinah Road is one of the fastest arteries for getting around the city at any speed, yet we have drivers that prefer to drive faster still in this crowded road, causing deadly accidents.
Drivers create their own laws. We see them speeding very close to the cars in front of them. And should the car in front hit the breaks for any reason, the result is chaos — too late for the driver behind to avoid a collision. The appropriate way is to leave adequate stopping distance between cars, but where is police to enforce this? I remember an accident few years ago: 19 cars collided in a huge pile-up because of careless speeding.
Another traffic law ignored by police is running red lights. This lack of awareness is seen almost everywhere. There isn’t a street in Jeddah free of life-threatening violations. If police were serious about enforcing traffic laws through tough punishment then we would see order in the street. If police seized cars for traffic violations then drivers would fear breaking the law. Police should be given full authority to bring order to the streets to save human lives.
