Al-Yaum

The management of the general directorate of traffic has finally realized that some traffic officers issue too many traffic violations. Sometimes they focus on minor violations, such as how a vehicle is parked, if a tire is on the yellow line, a vehicle that has stopped for a moment to load or unload without disrupting traffic, or any other superficial violation that causes no harm to others. Every now and then officers issue a violation for those who have not submitted their vehicle for a periodic check.

What I have experienced when driving outside of Saudi Arabia is that if a traffic officer notices that one of the rear lights of a vehicle is broken he will write a ticket but not issue a traffic violation. If the vehicle owner does not get it fixed by the end of the day, then it will automatically be registered as a violation.

This is the exact opposite of what we are doing here in the Kingdom. As it is impossible for anyone to check every morning to see if there is a problem with the rear lights of his vehicle, I was pleased to learn that the general directorate of traffic has demanded that traffic officers be precise and careful when issuing traffic violations and give the benefit of the doubt to the driver.

Even though we appreciate this step being taken, it is not strong enough to correct the behavior of some traffic officials, because demanding without making a statement of policy or clear guidance to officers is a waste of time.

Other writers and I have said that traffic officers need to give those guilty of traffic violations a hard time, because the results show that this has reduced the number of traffic deaths, accidents and injuries. However, that doesn’t mean that we should overlook those who continue to issue traffic violations for minor offenses.

Twitter: @sawalief