MADINAH: A 15-year-old-boy died on Monday when his 16-year-old friend drove his vehicle recklessly in Al-Tilal district of Madinah during a joy-riding gathering, when young Saudi men take turns performing dangerous stunt driving maneuvers.
According to a report in yesterday’s Al-Watan newspaper, the boy died when he fell off the hood of the vehicle where he was sitting as the other boy was performing a high-speed maneuver.
Col. Siraj Kamal, the head of Traffic Department in Madinah, told the daily that the 16-year-old boy has been detained pending an investigation into how the families want to resolve this matter. Forty vehicles were impounded at the gathering.
Kamal criticized parents for inadequate supervision of their boys’ ethics in relation to responsible use of motor vehicles. “Parents should not trust their children to this extent,” he said.
Joy riding has led to numerous incidents of injury and death among Saudi young men. It is common for young men to gather and compete in clandestine stunt-driving competitions. One popular maneuver is to drift a vehicle in a controlled, high-speed skid using the car’s emergency brake.
In October, three students, all brothers, died in Qurayat when a Saudi youth ran them and nine others over during a stunt maneuver that went out of control, plowing the vehicle into the cheering crowd of young men.
The government has recently implemented stiffer penalties for stunt driving, including seizure of vehicles and an SR1,000 fine for anyone caught joy riding. The fine increases for each subsequent violation.
