Seven Meters of Traffic Tickets

JEDDAH, 12 March 2004 — A taxi driver has racked up a record of fines seven meters long and totaling SR31,000.

Abdulrahman Al-Amri has been a taxi driver for 12 years. He told Al-Madinah newspaper he paid off all but SR4,000 of the fines but had to sell his car and get a bank loan.

He said police lie in wait for taxi drivers and charge them even when they have done nothing wrong.

“They are just trying to find an excuse to fine us,” Al-Amri said. “We suffer a lot.”