Manama: Drivers in Saudi Arabia have tried to camouflage their license plates with hairspray, plastic wrap, and license plate cover, burned and shot at speed cameras in attempts to dodge the resulting fines.
However, one Saudi man has taken the questionable tactics to beat police cameras to a new level when he hung his underwear in front of the mechanical eyes to obstruct the view.
A nine-second video clip of the white pants hanging from a Saher camera in the Naseem Neighbourhood in the capital Riyadh went viral on the Internet, sparking amused and angry comments in equal measures.
Saher, the system introduced by Saudi traffic authorities to check chaotic driving and monitor violations that included mainly jumping red lights, has been long resisted by drivers who even sought a religious edict to ban it on the grounds that it was robbing them of their savings.
“This driver deserves to be applauded for thinking of the people who resent Saher and its spying cameras,” Hami, a blogger, posted. “He is a good citizen who is protecting fellow citizens from the Saher fines. We thank him for his noble behaviour.”
Samel said that the pants were a message to the authorities to drop Saher.
“This system has made people lose their minds,” he said. “This is a message to change the system or to improve it by easing pressure, such as forgiving drivers who complete one month without a fine,” he said.
However, Al Qahtani criticised the driver’s behaviour.
“Saher is a highly beneficial system that helps minimize accidents,” he said. “It must be respected because it is in the public interest.”
Writing under the moniker of True Citizen, a blogger said that rules were made to be respected, not broken.
“We must respect traffic rules and regulations. They are made for our sake,” he said. “Unfortunately, there are people who do not care enough about their own lives and those of other people on the road.”
According to recent Saudi statistics, a car accident happens every second and 17 people are being killed in crashes every day on average in the kingdom.
Under the campaign to bring order to chaotic driving and boost a more positive traffic culture despite stiff resistance by unruly and speeding drivers, the authorities are planning to expand Saher, the monitoring cameras system, to all regions of the kingdom by 2018.
