JEDDAH, 12 July 2006 — Driving 160 kilometers per hour in a 100 kph speed zone in his father’s brown “Beemer” at the break of dawn on a Friday, Talal, 26, didn’t expect to be stopped by the Jeddah traffic patrol.
“The roads were empty. Yeah, I was speeding but the streets were empty,” said Talal.
Sirens went off as a police cruiser appeared from nowhere, and the officer called on Talal to come to a complete stop.
“When I did, I exited my car and approached the officer, that’s when he asked me for my mobile,” he said. “Although I questioned his request the officer insisted, so I handed it over.”
The officer told Talal that he could get his mobile back at the station. He explained the reason he took it in the first place: To prevent the young man from pulling “a wasta”, referring to the time-honored tradition here of calling personal connections to curry favors, like, say, getting out of trouble with the law.
“The officer told me ‘Your car is going to be impounded, you will be detained at the traffic police station where you’re going to be fined’,” said Talal. “’Then you will be given back your cell phone’.”
“This was a few months back, from that day forward my Schumacher days were over,” Talal said laughing, referring to the famous car racer. “The cops weren’t like this in the past.”
Meanwhile, Col. Mohammed Al-Qahtani, the head of the Traffic Police Department in Jeddah, told Arab News that the awareness campaigns had had an impact on reducing traffic accidents.
“The campaigns have really been paying off, statistics prove that,” said Al-Qahtani.
Road accidents seem, at least for the time being, to be declining. The Jeddah Traffic Department’s monthly report shows that road fatalities from May 28 to June 26 (the Islamic month of Jamad Al-Awwal) went down by 19, while 44 fewer people were injured compared to the same period in 2005.
Al-Qahtani added that no one would get any special privilege: “If you break the law then you’re going to deal with it.”
He expressed appreciation for the public’s cooperation in making “our streets a safer place.”
“The success we have acknowledged has given us a big drive to continue our street awareness campaigns,” said Al-Qahtani.
