Sunday, October 17, 2010

Driving in The kingdom - Sami

In Saudi Arabia we drive on the right side of the street and the steering wheel is situated on the left side of the car, just like the United States system. Only men who car driving  while  women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia except in some rural areas. I think one of the reasons of banning  women to drive is the way that men use it when they drive especially young people, they drive their own cars in fatal speed, the do not care about the traffic rules. The other reason belong to the custom of the country. Recently, women driving became a big issues in Saudi Arabia and in my opinion they will be able to drive in the near future. Getting a driving licence in Saudi Arabia is by far easier than New Zealand and it can be gotten at the age of 18.  The speed limit in the motorway is 120 kilometers per hour while in the cities  is depend on the street and it is between 50 to 90 kilometers per hour. The accidents rate in Saudi Arabia is  very hight according to the department of traffic police's statistics. Some of the reasons of the accidents in Saudi Arabia are the speed and using the mobile during driving. The number of the car accidents that happened in 2009 was  485931 and the number of people who died in the accidents was 6458, this means 13 deaths  everyday . The material losses because the car accidents were 5 billion dollars. 
Overall, driving in Saudi Arabia is nowhere near as safe as New Zealand and the high rate of the accidents would make me more apprehensive about driving in my country.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Sami,

    Is texting while driving illegal in SA? It has become illegal in many countries, but I don't know about yours.

    It'll be interesting to see what happens in terms of driving laws for women. Alan mentioned that he taught his sister to drive in case of an emergency, which I found interesting.

    Speaking of emergencies... I remember being stuck out of town one night with my father when I was 13 (no mobile phones back then) and he suddenly became really ill and I had to drive back home to Hamilton, with dad telling me how to drive from the back seat. Surprisingly, I had no problems and didn't even bunny hop the car.

    Actually, my father is quite irresponsible...he gave me a car the following year.

    Oh dear oh dear.

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  2. Oh yes...one more thing.

    In terms of feedback, there are too many commas in your third sentence.

    Change to:

    Young people, especially, drive their cars at an incredible speed and do not care about traffic rules.

    OR

    In particular, young people drive their cars at an incredible speed and do not care...

    Carolyn

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  3. Hi Caro,

    of course, Using mobile and driving is illegal in Saudi Arabia but some people
    do that .

    regarding learn women driving, most of Saudi people do that and I have been taught my wife driving since we got married, in Saudi Arabia she usually drive in remote area where there is no police but in New Zealand I let her to drive in Mt Albert at night, I know that illegal because she does not have a driving licence but this the only chance for her to drive a car at the moment.

    About your story,it was really interesting and the same thing happened to my wife and her father but she could not do any thing, the only thing she was able to do is crying as many women in the world. ;) I'm sure her father did think about this idea, even if he thought about it, he would not do it.

    in terms of your feedback, I really have problems with commas and collocations.

    Thanks Caro,

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  4. Hi Sami,

    It is so sad to knew that the number of dying people every day so high. Going to Saudi Arabia for good, me and you must to do something to decrease this number.

    So far so good . Caro ,I wish somebody stop using his mobile phone while he driving :)

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  5. Hi, Sami
    The soccer game will start an hour later.
    Good luck!

    Patrick

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