Rukaya Al-Huwairini Al-Jazirah newspaper Dubai police recently arrested a Saudi resident who committed 400 traffic violations for which he was fined a total of 356,000 dirhams. His car was also impounded for 1,000 days. In court, the young Saudi defended himself by claiming he was so used to evading the traffic police in his country and never getting caught that he thought he could do the same in Dubai. In another case, a group of Saudi tourists who traveled to the United Arab Emirates by car during the recent school holidays thought it would be a good idea to conceal their license plates so speed radars would not be able to identify their vehicles. The UAE traffic police impounded their cars, took the drivers into custody and refused them bail. To help resolve the matter, the Saudi Embassy intervened and paid the fines for several Saudi citizens who had “special circumstances”. One has to wonder how a tourist with little or no money could take a road trip to another country yet not have enough money to pay the fines for his traffic violations because of “special circumstances”. To make matters worse this phenomenon is not confined to the UAE. In Qatar, as many as 70 Saudis were caught by the police for concealing their license plates from speed radars which are there to protect the lives of both drivers and passengers. Such cases are embarrassing for every Saudi citizen. I wish these Saudis had realized that they are ambassadors of their country and any bad conduct will reflect poorly on the Kingdom. Our hospitals are full of victims of car accidents, many of which were caused by speeding or running a red light and it is therefore imperative that we educate and discipline our citizens so they respect the law and step up and acknowledge responsibility when they decide to break it. I also hope the traffic police build on the success of the Saher traffic management system and introduce a point system to rate driving records. Repeat offenders who accumulate too many points should have their cars impounded and licenses suspended. We are quick to hail the laws and rules of other countries but are reluctant to enforce such laws here. If we want to be respected, we must change ourselves or put up with more embarrassing, reckless behavior.
