As school exams come to a close this week, traffic departments across the Kingdom are keeping a close eye on areas where students gather to perform driving stunts, said Col. Muhammad Al-Qahtani, chief of the Jeddah Traffic Department. Traffic departments have urged full cooperation from the public in reporting driving stunts which can jeopardize the lives of both the drivers and innocent people. Internet sites which promote unauthorized stunt driving in the Kingdom are also closely monitored, Col. Al-Qahtani said. Secret police officers have also been deployed in areas where stunt drivers are known to gather, such as, Tahliah, the Corniche, Khalediyah, and Rawda, he said. Young students engage in such illegal practices to add glamour to their personalities and to receive the approval of their peers, said Abdullatif Al-Sulami, a sociologist. “It is the wrong way for young people to use their energy,” he said, calling on parents and schools to guide their children to the right path and raise their awareness of the dangerous consequences of driving stunts done without any professional training and supervision. High school students who make up the majority of stunt drivers learned the practice from older boys, said a young retired stunt driver, who wanted to be called just Masha'al. “I enjoyed watching one of my classmates doing it, especially on the last day of examinations,” he said. Masha'al was reluctant to embark on a dangerous ride with unforeseen consequences in the beginning, but the cheers that his classmate received from other students encouraged him to sit behind the wheel and learn how to do stunts. “It took me one month of dedicated training with my classmate to master a few stunts,” he said. Masha'al soon entered the hall of fame as one of the best known stunt drivers in Jeddah. His friends and fans called him “The Reckless One.” The stunt driving sessions Masha'al used to perform were on rental cars paid for by his friends and fans. When no money was available for the rental car, someone would give up his car for the stunt driving, and assume responsibility for the wear and tear and possible damage to the vehicle. “Fellow stunt drivers made sure that I was available for the big gatherings in order to heat up the event,” he said. But after 18 years of stunt driving, Masha'al came to realize that it was a grave mistake to continue. “I am so grateful to Allah that I am still alive, otherwise I would have been just another victim of mindless stunt driving,” he said. Now illegal, stunt driving has been curbed to a good extent due to strict measures taken against drivers, such as, heavy fines, suspension of the driver's license, and reports of secret police, said Col. Al-Qahtani. In Saudi traffic law, if someone is caught stunt driving, his vehicle will be impounded for 15 days and he will have to pay a fine of SR1,000. If caught a second time, the vehicle will be impounded for one month and a fine of SR1,500 will be imposed and the driver will be referred to court. Stunt driving in the Kingdom has claimed the lives of many innocent people, and stunt drivers have been referred to court for causing these deaths. The Abu Kaab case stands as evidence of strict measures taken against reckless drivers. The court recently sentenced the 27-year-old stunt driver, known as Abu Kaab (or the guy with the cap), to 20 years imprisonment and 3,000 lashes for causing the death of three teenage boys. In 2005, the boys were riding with Abu Kaab while he was stunt driving at night and his rental car crashed into an oncoming vehicle in Jeddah's north Corniche.
