Muhammad Abdullah, a young Saudi, said his money and that of his friend were stolen when they were busy receiving medial treatment at the ambulance following an accident.
"I did not realize that I had been robbed until later," he said.
A recent in-house survey of law enforcement and emergency officials conducted by Lt. Col. Abdullah bin Ayed Al-Shihri, director of the department of civil protection at the Civil Defense in Asir province, found traffic accidents constitute 89 percent of the accidents that lure onlookers. The survey was conducted on 450 police and civil defense commanders and top officers. About one in four of the bystanders, they said, are journalists.
The second-most common incident to attract bystanders are Civil Defense incidents, such as building fires.
According to the study, the accidents happening during evenings and weekends attract the most attention, obviously because that's when people are more likely to be out rather than at work.
Reasons for people lingering at such scenes include having a story to tell friends and relatives later.
Security personnel consistently point out that bystanders impede their work, even allowing criminal suspects to escape.
The survey called for using young volunteers to work crowd control operations. The survey also called for training security personnel and paramedics on how to benefit from people gathering at the accidents, such as seeking witnesses to the incident at hand.
