MADINAH, 8 May 2005 — A thwarted kidnapping attempt of a woman catching a ride in a pickup truck has some people calling for a crackdown months after a similar incident resulted in a girl’s death.
Although the small trucks are prohibited from such taxi service, truckers say it’s an important source of income for them.
In the recent case, a woman accepted a ride from a trucker in his 30s who had agreed to take her from Gurban neighborhood to Al-Bahar. On the way, he propositioned her and offered to take her somewhere quiet. She refused and demanded to be let out immediately. Instead, the man reached to the truck’s back seat and tried to rip the woman’s Hijab from her face. She resisted and prevented him from removing her garment.
The man stopped the assault, giving her a chance to use her mobile phone to contact police who were able to track the phone signal and locate the car. The man was arrested as he drove away from Madinah.
A similar incident occurred more than two months ago when a 20-year-old woman died while attempting to escape from a kidnapper in Madinah’s Al-Aziziya neighborhood. That girl and her cousin were riding with a pickup driver — not uncommon in Madinah where the small trucks often act like taxi cabs. The driver drove the two girls to an isolated place. One girl attempted to jump from the speeding truck and was killed.
Reaction to the recent kidnapping varied. Mustapha Muhammad said it’s about time for the Madinah Traffic Department to take some serious steps against these drivers.
“These trucks are not supposed to act like taxis,” Muhammad said. “The problem is that people are helping them. I think police should be tough on the drivers and on people. If the driver is caught, both the driver and passengers should be fined. We cannot afford more incidents in this peaceful city of Madinah.”
The truckers have a different point of view. “No one should have the right to judge all pickup drivers as bad because of the two incidents,” said Awad Bakheet, a trucker who says taxi transport is an important source of income for many families, with some using it as a primary source of income.
“It’s totally unfair,” Bakheet said, “and they should never accuse us. We are honest people trying to earn honest money to support our families.”
