I had a little fender-bender this weekend. It was about time - I hadn't had one in a while. An Indian dude driving one of those micro-vans got confused at the Passport Round-about. It coulda been my fault; it coulda been his fault. Hard to say. I came around the outside lane towards Bidaa Round about and he was in the right lane at about 20 MPH. I assumed from his position that he was also making the turn, but he decided to continue straight, hit my car; and instead of hitting the brakes, hit the gas; hit a curb, then a pile of bricks, flipped on the side of the van, and back up again. The van is pretty much totalled. He told the officer that after he hit my car, he lost both his brakes and his steering. Mmmmmm... highly unlikely. Anyhow, I don't really care; it doesn't matter whose fault it is in Kuwait; get the accident report and move on. Nobody was hurt (word to The Big Man).
The Kuwaiti police were reeeeeeally polite and spoke English very well (I didn't catch their names - one was a Kandari). Way to go, gentlemen. The emergency line was very professional and the woman who answered the phone followed up to make sure that the police arrived and that I was ok. Wow. Things are a-changin.
There is room for improvement at the police stations, however. When is Kuwait going to change to a computer system? I have good friends who are investigators and it is really difficult for them to write out all the cases in long-hand. They are not allowed to use their own computers - everything has to be done by hand. It just seems so antiquated. How do they archive all of that? It must be terribly time-consuming. It all goes into ledgers and hard copy files. The police stations could use some maintenance also. It must be a hard work environment.
The investigator I spoke to said that there are a LOT of accidents on the round-abouts. I don't get this. Why did they do major major road construction in Kuwait and leave the round-abouts in the plan? Horrible engineering!
Hi DG, if you're the one changing lanes then that Indian driver who was in his own lane has priority of passage, as far as I know.
ReplyDeletehi,
ReplyDeleteHope ur safe & well....
I am really glad to hear that no one was hurt. I went to a police station last week to get my finger prints done for my new residency. I first walked in a saw a manual typewriter. I had not see one of those in decades. As I was having my fingers rolled around in spot of ink dabbed on a table, I noticed there were four digital finger printing machines sitting in the same room all unplugged.
ReplyDeleteEveryday in the papers there a folks arrested here that are either wanted in connection with other cases, or have fled from previous sentences. Maybe if the police could stop using technology from the 40s and move into this century they could cut down on some of that.
Glad you're OK. I somehow avoided any accidents in Kuwait while living there. Not sure how.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you were in the accident but so glad that you are not hurt.
ReplyDeleteIt is wonderful that you are posting a bit more lately, I really enjoy hearing about your life.
I guess I need to make sure I get a fridge on wheels in Kuwait! Glad no one was injured.
ReplyDeleteWas it a Toyota van ??, then the gas pedal getting stuck would have been a possibility :-). Anyways glad that no one was hurt.
ReplyDeleteRoundabouts are very safe and efficient if used correctly. Use the correct lane and signal. The driver on the roundabout (coming from your left) always has right of way. The reason why there are so many accidents on roundabouts in Kuwait is that no-one knows how to use them. I've heard them called circles of despair. Glad you're ok though.
ReplyDeleteOn a similar note, why do all the cross roads in Kuwait with lights only allow one direction at a time? Where I come from (i.e. the civilised world) opposite directions get the green at the same time with a very short time either side for traffic trying to turn accross oncoming traffic. It's extremely frustrating to sit in traffic and watch this go on day after day....
The C.O.P.S. were real nice cause of the "Westerner" involved?...
ReplyDeleteIf the "Fenda Benda" was with two non-"westerners" then it would have been a one way conv that goes like this "yalla...yalla....yalla..." and then some "tsk...tsk...tsk" and then some heat.. license and registration confiscation of both parties and here comes the kicker........... pick up the documents in a week?????
All YOU see is some stripe trying to show off his language skills to you!...
- Thomas, out..
I had an incident at the airport with a cop.. i thought he did not know english so kept on talking to him in my non sense arabic, which was horrible and at the end when i was not able to explain i asked him hopelessly if he could speak english and dam!!! the guy could speak english perfectly.. sometimes i think i am just being stereo type, when i was young being an expatriate would make sure i face discrimination. however i was surprised to see the changed behavior specially at the airport.. wassup with Kuwait now?
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