A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Time to rein in the lunatics behind wheels |
|---|
| Abu_Atheek |
| 03/22/02 at 13:50:26 |
| [slm] [url]http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=13666[/url] Time to rein in the lunatics behind wheels [i]By Molouk Y. Ba-Isa, Arab News Staff[/i] My maid has just brought me a cup of tea and two aspirins. I returned home a few minutes ago after surviving my tenth car crash. It was a big one — a five-car collision on the Alkhobar-Dammam Highway. Yes folks, ten times now I have heard the screech of tires and the crunch of metal, sounds which would give an indication to anyone that a negative life experience was in progress. Ten times I have been an unwitting and unwilling participant in crashes which have left me emotionally scarred forever. The bad news here is that I am one of the lucky ones. Ten times I have been able to walk away from the crashes. Many of my female friends haven’t been as fortunate even the first time around. The Kingdom doesn’t publish numbers of how many women are injured or killed every year in traffic accidents. It’s a touchy subject. That’s because every one of those women was the victim of some man’s stupidity. Perhaps a driver was speeding. Or he forgot to check the tire pressure. Or he was too tired to focus on the road properly. Or he was eating, smoking, chatting or goofing off and wasn’t paying any attention to his driving. Or maybe he just didn’t care enough about the traffic regulations to obey the signals. I could give you dozens of reasons why men have car accidents that kill women. The bottom line is that this is a disgusting situation which is getting worse and worse, and the time has come for women to speak up in self-defense. It’s a fact that internationally women cause fewer traffic accidents then men. Yet I have been told that I am banned from driving here in Saudi Arabia because it’s in my own best interest. That leaves me at the mercy of irresponsible men who don’t respect my life. Hundreds of traffic police around the Kingdom spend hours every day stopping vehicles and demanding driver’s licenses and registrations. Listen to me officers! I don’t care anymore if any driver has a license or a registration. Stop looking for those useless pieces of paper and start stopping the lunatics who are on the road wreaking havoc! Punishments for speeding and signal running should be massive and enforced on all. Three days in jail and a SR5,000 fine for a first offense would be perfect. Let the jail time and fine double for every successive offense. Recordings of anguished weeping women should play incessantly in the jail cell during a driver’s incarceration. I can hear all the men out there shouting and outraged at my suggestions. I don’t care. My life is worth a lot to me. The only way any lunatic on the road will understand that is if he is hit hard in his pocket. A portion of the fines can go to the Ministry of Health to improve the trauma centers Kingdomwide where many female accident victims die every year because the facilities are inadequate. You don’t like the idea of massive fines and jail time for erring drivers? In that case, I have a better suggestion. Men have been driving in the Kingdom for the last 70 years or so and time has shown that they aren’t very good at it. So effective immediately, ban all male drivers from our roads. For the next seventy years let women do the driving in Saudi Arabia and allow men to sit in the back seats of the vehicles, white knuckled and praying. But don’t worry, they won’t be frightened and miserable for long. I am certain that if women were driving, in a very short time the number of accidents on Saudi roads would be dramatically reduced. Do I sound angry? I hope so. I’ve been terrorized by ignoramuses on the Kingdom’s roads for decades and I’ve had enough. Now, there’s just one question in my mind. How many more people are going to die or be hideously maimed in traffic accidents before we as a nation do whatever it takes to make the horror on our roads cease? |
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board |