The level of chaos in our streets is unprecedented, which is frightening and shameful. It is also accompanied by a steep fall in ethical standards.

Do we realize that reckless driving is a crime just like other crimes? And these reckless drivers are more dangerous to us than those who steal and forge. They risk our lives every minute when they show their recklessness, turning from street to street without giving signals and passage to other drivers, or changing their lanes by crossing over sidewalks without the slightest feeling of guilt or responsibility.

They even use sidewalks to bypass all other cars at a speed of 60 km/h or more. They will come dangerously close to your car on the emergency lane, moving at a lightning speed.

Here in Saudi Arabia, we can import cars without indicators as no one uses them anyway when turning right or left or when changing lanes.

The question here is: Are the streets of our beautiful country turning into a jungle with no respect to traffic laws? Our wise government under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Crown Prince Salman have done everything possible on educating the citizens, especially the new generation, encouraging them to abide by the traffic laws and respect their and other people’s lives. Unfortunately, the responsibility here falls on all of us.

There has to be a scientific study of this phenomenon that takes into consideration all these cases very seriously. This is the only way we can handle this grave situation and this serious defect in our beloved country before it’s too late. Why is it that there isn’t any regulation that imposes heavy fines or jail terms or even both? Did you know that some European countries deduct the fine from the person’s yearly income for crossing the speed? limit, which could reach upto SR 20,000 or even more, and a jail term anywhere between three and six months.

I don’t mean that we should be like them, but there should be at least some punishment for crossing speed limits, such as jail terms and a fine for anyone who defies the law. There also has to be an increase in surveillance on our streets to control and minimize this phenomenon. We have to treat this grave situation, which endangers lives every day.

We all have to respect laws and regulations. Every citizen is responsible for advising and guiding people to abide by laws and the decent right way of driving. We should all be very keen on teaching our children about the necessity of respecting other people’s feelings and showing them how to protect their lives and other lives as well. We should try hard to fix this situation to guarantee a better future for our next generation. — Hussein Shaker, Jeddah