Our family had a great summer away from the heat and humidity. Less than a week back into the desert heat and we are back into our Arabian Life with a bang..literally!
Accidents happens here a lot. Today was my first. Of course they never happen at convenient times or places. Approaching a stop light the car in front of us decided to slam on his brakes four car lengths from the light! Drivers have become paranoid here as there is a mandatory 48 hours in jail for running a red light and rumours of fines if it's yellow. So now everyone drives super-fast or super-slow at intersections trying to guess when the light is going to change. Recipe for our disaster today. So the car in front stops making us have to stop and the big delivery truck behind us carrying a heavy load crashes into the back of us.
We were on our way to an important meeting with our kiddo and the truck hit where our kiddo was sitting. Thankfully we were all ok but then its get crazy..
How do we get the police to come and get to our really important meeting in time? I call for emergency services so we can file a police report in order to get the insurance to pay. I call, they don't speak English so HANG UP!!! I gave up after half a dozen tries of being hung up on. What if we had been injured? I have no words.
The rules are a bit unclear but in the past it was illegal to move the vehicle from the scene of an accident so we are sitting in blocking the left two lanes of a five lane highway waiting for the police to come (they never did!). In the mean time My Sweet is trying to flag down any taxis so the kiddo and I can get to our meeting. After a half hour a taxi finally stops but speaks no English. Thankfully I know a little, left and right, so off we go making it a little late but safely to our meeting.
Meanwhile My Sweet is stuck waiting for the police who still don't show. After another hour the police report is finally filed.
I am thankful that no-one was hurt but it got me thinking about the lack of Emergency Services and my lack of Arabic...
Accidents happens here a lot. Today was my first. Of course they never happen at convenient times or places. Approaching a stop light the car in front of us decided to slam on his brakes four car lengths from the light! Drivers have become paranoid here as there is a mandatory 48 hours in jail for running a red light and rumours of fines if it's yellow. So now everyone drives super-fast or super-slow at intersections trying to guess when the light is going to change. Recipe for our disaster today. So the car in front stops making us have to stop and the big delivery truck behind us carrying a heavy load crashes into the back of us.
We were on our way to an important meeting with our kiddo and the truck hit where our kiddo was sitting. Thankfully we were all ok but then its get crazy..
How do we get the police to come and get to our really important meeting in time? I call for emergency services so we can file a police report in order to get the insurance to pay. I call, they don't speak English so HANG UP!!! I gave up after half a dozen tries of being hung up on. What if we had been injured? I have no words.
The rules are a bit unclear but in the past it was illegal to move the vehicle from the scene of an accident so we are sitting in blocking the left two lanes of a five lane highway waiting for the police to come (they never did!). In the mean time My Sweet is trying to flag down any taxis so the kiddo and I can get to our meeting. After a half hour a taxi finally stops but speaks no English. Thankfully I know a little, left and right, so off we go making it a little late but safely to our meeting.
Meanwhile My Sweet is stuck waiting for the police who still don't show. After another hour the police report is finally filed.
I am thankful that no-one was hurt but it got me thinking about the lack of Emergency Services and my lack of Arabic...
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