By Abdellatif Sharaa
must start by thanking Allah Almighty for being still alive on the face of this earth and still being able to hold a pen and move it to form words next to each other and come out with sentences that you read. No my friends, I am not a coronavirus survivor as I did not catch it - at least not yet - and I pray to God to spare me the agony. In fact I am a street wars survivor!
I was driving in Salmiya when all of a sudden a speeding car cut in front of me. The driver then hit the brakes to avoid running a red light. All the while I was doing my best to avoid colliding with him. And as if this was not enough, the driver came to me to give me advice to pay attention and be careful, saying: "You have eyes, use them!"
His comment made me wonder what mistake I made and I thought about it for a while. But believe me I was not speeding, I did not change lanes dangerously and I was respecting the lanes to the letter of the law! Anyhow, my response was a smile, and I told him to please do the same.
Another day, I was driving on a major highway at the speed limit of 120 km/hr when someone driving at very high speed forced me and others to move to the right-hand lanes. But he himself moved right and exited, and almost created a tragedy as he was about to hit a motorcycle. Believe me, we were scrambling on the road like panicked rabbits to avoid hitting each other because of the actions of one driver.
It is unfortunate that this behavior can be seen in various areas by drivers of different age groups and backgrounds. I know the traffic dilemma has been constantly on the minds of concerned officials over the years, and many solutions were implemented. Some worked well and others were not so successful, but here I am speaking to my fellow motorists.
I drive a lot during the week and cover vast areas of Kuwait. I see various driving habits and behaviors on the streets, and I do insist that a significant percentage of the problem is our behavior, and if we follow the rules and respect the rights of others on the road, the problem will not be as bad.
I am saying this out of practical experience - there is a roundabout close to where I live and traffic is always congested there because the majority of drivers act as if each owns the road. But when traffic patrols come there and stay for a while, traffic moves smoothly and things become fine! So let us all cooperate with each other, follow the rules and help authorities to make things easier. It is in our hands, and yes we can do it! Yes we can.
PS: I am not a perfect driver, of course, but I try my best - I try hard and courtesy is always on my mind!
local@kuwaittimes.com