Accidents happen all the time on all roads. This is normal, but what is not usual is when you are hit by someone - a female motorist for example - and end up dealing with a man. It is normal for both parties to go to the police station for getting paperwork done for the insurance and the garage, but it is not right to spend many hours at the police station waiting to make a statement. Time is important for hardworking people and unexpected delays could be a problem for them. Accident procedures by the police in Kuwait take a long time, and sometimes people can't afford to spend many hours at police stations, especially for minor accidents with no injuries.

I received a letter from a reader about a car accident she had a few weeks back. It brought back memories of when I was involved in a similar accident, with a lot of bad luck and wasta. Our friend's story starts with a minor car accident with another car driven by a Kuwaiti woman with kids. Our reader got out of the car, and before she could ask if the other woman was okay, the woman started yelling at her. This is normal when two women hit each other's cars, but what is strange is that the other woman called her husband, took his vehicle when he arrived, and left the scene. When police gave them the paper of the accident, our reader realized they wrote the name of woman's husband as if he was driving the car and he was the one who hit her car from behind and got into an accident.

Surprisingly, the lady completely got out of the scene as if she was never there when the accident happened. The police officer told our reader and the Kuwaiti man to go to the police station at 6:00 pm. She did so and waited until 7:30 pm. When the officer called the man, he claimed that he came to the police station at 5:00 pm but she did not show up, so he left his number with the police officer. When the officer asked the Kuwaiti when will he be able to return to the police station, he said he is busy because of Eid.

After several attempts and failures to set an appointment, the officer gave the two the papers to go and see the investigator. At this stage, the language barrier appeared to be another problem. Without speaking proper Arabic, it is hard to explain what happened. The story ends with many bad memories. The reader asked me if I could publish her story because she feels that she was not treated with respect or justice because she is an expat who cannot speak Arabic.

Well, I think even if you speak good Arabic, such incidents can happen. A few years back, I was involved in an accident, and ended up at the police station, where I had to wait many hours for the man who hit my car me to arrive, despite an officer's repeated calls to him. When we finally went to the investigator, he turned out to be his good friend, and you can all imagine what he put in writing - that it was my fault! I went to court and it took me three years to see justice served, luckily. But it also consumed a lot of money in legal fees, which many expat can't afford.

We need full automation at all police stations to reduce paperwork, and officers must learn to speak good English. The police are there to serve everyone, and with expats being a majority, this is not a choice.

By Muna Al-Fuzai

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