Driving in the Asir can be a harrowing experience, the region didn't get it's first roads until 1984 so the quality of driving we take for granted in the UK is lacking so say the least, road accidents are almost an acceptable way of life, often fatal.
If the human population wasn't hazardous enough then you have to put up with the indigenous population, the baboons, camels & packs of wild dogs.
The unwritten rule is "When you think you have seen every conceivable version of stupidity, then wait 5 minutes and there will always be something that will prove you wrong!"
If you are unfortunate enough to be involved in a road traffic accident then there are a few rules you should want to know about: -
-
It will always be your fault (The official reason:- you have insurance and it's easier for the police to blame you, rather than jail the true guilty party until the damages have been paid for. The commonly held belief of the locals: - If you hadn't have been in their country then the accident wouldn't have happened (I was told this by a member of the Law Enforcement Community in the Asir)
-
If you are seriously injured then an ambulance will not be called for 30 minutes as up until that time you are within "The Will of God"
-
Prepare for a long spell in the Police Department as Saudi Bureaucracy is a slow moving wheel, which turns ever slower the more you try and spin it.
-
This may or may not offend your Christian virtues, if you are involved with a local (Moslem) and they are seriously injured and require immediate medical attention, then prepare yourself for the consequences of administering First Aid. If they live and suffer no ill effects from your treatment then the family will be eternally grateful, however if you treat an unconscious patient and they suffer any form of damage as a result of the accident (brain damage through asphyxiation) then you even though you have saved their life, have inadvertently caused the persons family unbearable suffering and hardship, you will have to pay them huge sums in "Blood Money" and until the debt is paid you will not leave jail or the country, you may even be put to death if they die despite your best efforts to save them, as you have interfered with "The Will of God".
-
If you kill an animal then prepare to pay for more than just the animal, a goat or a camel is always a thoroughbred and it will if male, be an animal that would have produced hundreds of it's like in it's lifetime, so you will pay for the animal and it's alleged offspring too.
-
There is a sliding scale for "Blood Money" payments up to 100% for a Moslem, up to 75% for a Christian, and up to 5% for a Hindu. This is based on religion as "There is only one God and his name is Allah, and there is only one prophet and his name is Mohammed". Christians are the next best thing as the prophet Essa (Jesus) was one of the prophets of Mohammed. In Islam "A man without a god is not a man" hence the scale for a Hindu.