Middle East Features
Iraq's drivers buckling up as traffic rules get stricter
By Kazem al-Akabi
Apr 27, 2008, 15:44 GMT

Baghdad - Ten days after Iraq's traffic police took action to strictly enforce a seat belt law, drivers, at first seeing the law as adding to a long list of daily woes, are now resigned to the habit of buckling up.

Some drivers, who are more worried about the ever-present peril of car bombs and kidnappings turning their commute into a deadly nightmare, received the seat belt law with cynicism.

Some have complained that buckling up would make it harder for drivers to run for their lives if caught in a bombing.

'The seat belt is a civilized measure. But enforcing it now makes things difficult amid the daily scenes of bombings and killings,' says 34-year-old Baghdadi, Ahmed Mahdi.

'I fear that having a seat belt on would prevent a speedy escape from scenes of dangers,' Mahdi says.

Cynics wonder how seat belt safety can contribute to reducing the daily scenes of chaos on Iraq's traffic-jammed roads.

The speed limit does not exceed 40 kilometres anyway, cynics complain.

Slow traffic in the Iraqi capital is exacerbated by the closing of main roads and bridges, especially the suspension bridge in Karada near the fortified Green Zone - an enclave housing the US and other foreign embassies, parliament and some ministries.

Roads are also clogged by over a million cars, which have flooded Iraq since a high import tax on automobiles was lifted after the collapse of the former regime in 2003.

Only drivers are required to belt up, not passengers, cynics say.

But any potential lawbreakers have to think twice before violating the seat belt regulation. The fine for failure to do so is 30,000 Iraqi dinar, about 25 dollars, which is the equivalent of a day's earning for some taxi drivers.

The fine is to be paid on the spot.

Iraqis are also startled by government's resolve to enforce the law with deployment of traffic police patrols lurking around every bend.

At omnipresent security checkpoints, both army and police are empowered to enforce the seat belt law.

So, there is no escape, some drivers in Baghdad grudgingly say. They are now resigned to buckling up - an act that Iraqis were obliged to do under the iron rule of Saddam Hussein.

'These days, I find it difficult to have the seat belt on because I stopped using it in the last five years,' Fadia Rahim, 23, says.

'I stopped using the seat belt because I felt that it was restricting my movement and also because of the absence of police control in the last years,' Rahim says.

Jaded drivers are also unhappy about another traffic rule, which bans cars with an odd-number license plate from driving on days when only cars with even numbers are permitted on the roads.

However, some law-abiding Iraqis welcome traffic rules encouraged by the return of normality on the roads.

'The strict enforcement of the seat belt rule will give traffic police the power to control the streets,' Falah Hassan, a 52-year-old Baghdadi, says.

'Traffic police lost their status over the past years since the invasion. They lost respect of drivers, who no longer follow police orders,' Hassan added.