ALI Bin Jumaa Al-Salim, the young Saudi man who was electrocuted by a street lamp post on the Dammam Corniche while playing football, is not the first victim of such patent negligence in the Kingdom's open parks and public places and will certainly not be the last. There are countless example of negligence in public places such as exposed electric wires, electricity distribution stations submerged with water and all kinds of other hazards that might endanger the lives of children, young and old men and women. What astonishes me is the manner in which the death of the young man was reported. It was reported either in a way that would confirm the responsibility of the Dammam municipality or completely absolve it. There are attempts to put the responsibility of this tragic death on a single party which is either the municipality or the contractor who installed the lamp posts. But it is the city's mayoralty that is responsible for the safety of public places it has established. Any deaths or injuries that occur in these places are the direct responsibility of the mayoralty because of its failure to undertake sufficient safety measures. The contractor is accountable to the municipality which has the right to question him for lack of proper maintenance. The municipality in turn should bear the responsibility of not closely monitoring the work of the contractor. It was responsible for being unaware of a dangerous lamp post in the park. Our public departments, with no exception, are only concerned with finding the ideal location for projects with complete disregard to safety norms. This happens in all municipalities and regions. All of our streets, even in the capital Riyadh, have lamp posts with exposed electric wires. It has become customary for us to act only after a tragedy has struck and even when this happens, we often try to find excuses even though we know very well who is responsible and who is to blame.
