Uncivilized driving ... but civilized dispute settlement ?

When I had an accident (he ran into me). I called my company (BAe) and they sent the Saudi rep out. As it was, neither the other driver or the policeman spoke any English. The other driver blamed me but after hearing my explanation the policeman suggested that he was mistaken. ie, lying out his teeth. So, if you can have a colleague that you can call upon  . . . . . . .
Enjoy.

jillndave wrote:

The other driver blamed me but after hearing my explanation the policeman suggested that he was mistaken. ie, lying out his teeth.

Thanks Dave. It seems that bad faith is a universal concept.

^ And the belief that the foreigner has deeeeeeeeeeeep pockets.

Chances are you will be "charged" with the accident if you are a foreigner so Dave's advice is spot on.  Get your handler on the scene as soon as possible.

they do that coz they r used to it, so accidents arent new to them...
they must be like...This is nuthing...i had a more severe accident before or something like that

i had a more severe accident before

or like, I had a more severe accident LAST week!

usually if its locals the scene is kool

however, with expats and locals the cops could generally be biased towards the other side

however, since everyone must have insurance these days nobody seems to care much as they will not have to dig deep into teir pockets

yet, the hassle of the doc process and waiting and loss of vehicle can be most depressing...

i have had 4 accidents so far and all have been hit from behind. on one occasion my poor Bangla Desh driver had to stay in the cooler for about 10 days... since he was on someone elses sponsorship and not mine and his sponsor had to come and get him out.

How to deal with Accidents in Saudi Arabia for DUMMIES


so you got into an accident. what do you do?

1- first thing is don't move the car unless your told so by the traffic police. even if your blocking the morning traffic with a hundred angry drivers demanding that you move, I know it sounds un-ethical, but thats the best practice here. if you move the traffic officer can't judge how the accident happend or whom is to blame. oh and aside from the traffic police, there is the "Najm Insurance services company" that arrives at accidents as well, you might want to listen to what they say as well.

2- remain calm. if your not injured then theres nothing to worry about other than spending a few hours to finish the procedures. make sure you haven't killed the other driver, erm I mean make sure he is not hurt, don't act angry even if he was wrong. if there are passengers with you like your mrs. or something, you might want to send them off by taxi becuase your going to spend a bit of a while there.

3- if you can manage in arabic call 993 "traffic police" and explain the situation and give directions to your location. if you cant speak arabic just call them anyway and get a laugh out of having them go crazy trying to find someone who can speak english. nah just kidding. im pretty sure the other guy who you bumped into will be calling them anyway, but if not just find anyone to help you call them and explain.

3.2- on the other hand you can do what Mr. Strech said and call your company to handle it. ofcourse not everyone is treated as vip or the GRO's might not be around so be prepared to handle it on your own.

4- now you have to wait, if the other guy is friendly you might have a good time chating with him, or you might just stay in your car or on the side of the street untill the officials arrive. they usually take a while as I remember but its been over an year since my last accident so Im not sure how the services are these days

5- now the buggers have arrived and you need to explain your side of the story, yes. story telling is important. if your not lucky and didnt get anyone from your company to help out then you better break all the arabic words you rememberd this far to explain what happened. sign language can take you far enough sometimes.

6- ofcourse during the story telling session the officer will request license and registration so have them prepared, plus your insurance so dont leave that in office or youll be spening the night in the slammer with good company... it aint prety.

7- after that the officer will tell you to get the cars off the road and park them on a side. depending on how bad your car is hit (wether you can still drive it or not) if you cant drive it anymore the officer will use his car to pull/push your car off the road. when the paperwork is done the officer will ask you to stop by the traffic police station next morning to finish any paper work. and get your car fix permit. incase you need to get it fixed that is.

ofcourse all this can be taken care of by your company or you have to do it on your own, depending on your situation.


now I wanted to take my time to write this guide but im in a hurry so feel free to ask for more details, im sure I left out some essential details

Salman

GRO = goverment relation officer (the people who finnish all your paperwork from outside the company)

Salman Omrani wrote:

...you better break all the arabic words you rememberd this far to explain what happened...

The only words I know in Arabic are "I would like to order a pizza" and "what a cute little baby". Would that help ???

hmmm, nice collection of words... perhaps your lucky and the officer has his kid in his car cuz his wife is out and he's flatterd to hear that so he kind of feels nice about you and decides to help out. lol

or he gets offended becuase of the pizza thinking you thought hes a dilivery boy which he used to be and he hated it thus he pushes all the blame on you.

you'll have to be carefull

Salman