The vandalization of Saher speed cameras and the recent spate of loutish attacks by youths on motorists traveling along city streets, though seeming different, are in fact connected by a worrying lack of discipline and indeed social responsibility among young people.

Saudi roads are the world’s most dangerous, very largely because of appalling driving standards. Unfortunately it is all too often young people, typically behind the wheels of powerful automobiles, who are responsible for the majority of wrecks. Once upon a time the only way that road regulations could be enforced was by traffic cops. This in itself was an invitation to young motorized hooligans. Find a parked-up patrol car and roar pass it at top speed. The game was to see if the cops could catch up.

This behavior was of course insane, because it was not just a race between the criminal young drivers and the prowl car. There are other motorists on the road whose lives are put in danger as a high-speed chase passes them. Then there are the night time gatherings of youths on public roads, where they hold drag races or spin their cars round and round with the pedal to the metal. A mile or two up the road in both directions, look outs are posted to warn of approaching police patrols. Thus before traffic cops can reach the joy riders, they and the dozens of young spectators who come to cheer them on, will have disappeared into the night or driven off cross-country to prearranged hiding places.

Now everyone was young once and perhaps most of us could put our hands up to foolish behavior. But today, there seems a greater wilfulness and markedly less consideration of the interests of anyone else, in the way that some young people are acting. There are those that argue that social media have a lot to do with it. It is a relatively simple matter for young users of Facebook or Twitter to send out messages giving locations for these joy-riding jamborees. To make life difficult for the authorities, messages, perhaps sent days earlier, which may not have been noticed by any officials monitoring social media traffic, will have assigned code words for different locations. Thus the police may only be able to react after they hear a complaint from a motorist who has been caught up in this mad behavior. And since the involvement of the authorities, is all part of the stupid game these young people are playing, the view among the hooligans will be “bring it on”.

Which brings us back to the Saher cameras, which have undoubtedly helped cut down on speeding and thus make our roads safer. Behavior only improves where there is a camera. Move on down the road and the speedometer is back up high. Therefore, the answer has to be for a deployment of the Saher system on every major road in the Kingdom. Moreover, to stop the criminal damage to the cameras, they need to be mounted high up. They also need to be monitored by separate security cameras which will spot anyone who tries to damage the cameras, by for instance shooting at them. Such a closed circuit TV system, which already exists at key points in major cities, would also be of considerable use in tracking criminals, spotting road wrecks, monitoring traffic flows and in civil emergencies, such as the recent floods or landslides, quickly identifying where the problems lies.

CCTV systems are deployed on roads and highways throughout Europe. While the life of the criminals on the move has been made immeasurably more difficult, after initial mumblings about an encroachment on civil liberties, the majority of Europeans accept that the CCTV system has made driving a safer experience. These cameras would of course also spot joy riders, whether they were gathered on public roads for their crazy antics or just burning rubber as they weave through traffic at insanely high speeds.

There can be no doubt that rolling out a huge CCTV system would be a considerable cost. Yet as the Saher speed cameras have proved, the income generated by fines imposed automatically on offenders, is going a long way to payback the investment. And besides, how can you put a price on safer roads and more apprehended criminals?

Once they realized that their anti-social behavior would be quickly spotted and they themselves identified , whether they were joy riding or throwing rocks at unfortunate motorists on city streets, these hoodlums would know to stop and hopefully find something more useful and fulfilling to do with their time.