If you thought traffic laws were tough in the US, think again. Yes, you could argue that the vehicle code in your state is probably about the size of a medium range dictionary, and I guess now you know why the traffic lawyers, traffic court judges, and the highway patrolmen are paid so well. But comparatively speaking, it’s much more difficult driving in other countries, and many of their laws just don’t seem to make sense.
Indeed, I read that Saudi Arabia has a law that if you have a gorilla in the car you are not allowed to let them ride in the backseat. Because if the gorilla gets excited, which they often do while they ride around in a car, they typically try to grab a hold of the driver in front of them, and they are very strong, and if they grab around your head you will not be able to see where you’re driving or control the vehicle. Obviously you can see how serious this is, so they do have a law on the books in Saudi Arabia, I kid you not, that all guerrillas must drive in the front seat and on the passenger side strapped in.
Oh, and if you are a woman, they really look down on women drivers. If the woman is an accident no matter whose fault, she is pretty much automatically at fault. And in most cities they can’t drive at all. In fact, there was a very interesting article recently in the New York Times titled “Saudi Arabia Arrests Woman Leading Right-to-Drive Campaign,” by Neil MacFarquhar, published on May 23, 2011 which stated;
“Saudi Arabia moved swiftly to extinguish a budding protest movement of women claiming the right to drive, a campaign inspired by uprisings across the Arab world demanding new freedoms. Ms. Sharif was arrested after two much-publicized drives last week to highlight the Facebook and Twitter campaigns organized to encourage women across Saudi Arabia to collectively protest.”
Imagine if you were a traffic lawyer in Saudi Arabia, and you had to defend a woman, and remember that society is different, who tried to start a campaign called “The Women’s Right to Drive Campaign” and you had to go before the judge and explain why driving ought to be a right, not a privilege, and available to both male and female.
Indeed I hope you will please consider all this next time you consider the privilege to drive in the United States and all of our freedoms here. We’ve got it pretty good with our traffic laws, and you probably shouldn’t forget that.
Tags: Claws On law, Law Articel