Hala Hayek
English 210
Ms. Leen Srouji
Draft 1 – Problem and Solution A Lebanese Daily Nightmare In Lebanon, everything seems to be out of place. Unaware that the lack of order has dangerous and deadly consequences, the Lebanese people got accustomed to their messy lives.
According to the association of “Kun Hadi”, the rate of car accidents is increasing yearly by a rate between 12 and 17 percent. To make driving safe, the Lebanese government should fix the bumpy roads, apply police surveillance, and oblige people to abide to the law by forcing fines.
Although some might argue that the blame would be on the people not driving safely, it is the government’s duty to force people to drive safely by applying laws and regulations to decrease car accidents.
Alternatives are easily found when there is no electricity in homes, but when the lack of electricity leaves the Lebanese bumpy messy roads absolutely lightless at night then no alternative can be found. Aside from the holes that fills them and the darkness that invades them at night, the roads have a weak engineered structure that prompts car accidents. Thus, the first and most important thing that our respectful government can do is to fix the roads and make them safe for driving. Ziad Akl, the founder of YASA, said that “the state must provide safe roads and road lighting and it must recondition trans-regional roads as they have the highest number of accidents”.
Strolling through the roads of Lebanon, a driver would find a police officer standing at the corner of the street chatting on his “Blackberry”. Police officers should watch the streets and maintain order on them, rather than chatting. The lack of police surveillance gives the people freedom to break the law repeatedly and fearlessly, hence increasing the possibilities of car accidents. Therefore, another thing that our government should do is to intensify proper police surveillance. "Citizens, on the other hand, should abide by the traffic laws and regulations and should understand the state's reduced capabilities and try to cope with the situation," Akl said. "They should not speed or jeopardize their own life or the life of others because of their recklessness and then blame the government for it." While citizens have no respect to the traffic laws, it’s the job of the government to raise awareness and force fines to oblige people to abide to the law. The neglection of traffic laws and the disregard in forcing fines opens the way for people to break the law and put themselves and others on the roads in danger. By forcing expensive fines, people will be forced to think twice before breaking the law, and that will most likely decrease the huge amount of car accidents.
The lack of law abidance, shortage of police surveillance, and extinction of safe roads left driving in Lebanon a suicide mission. The solution to the problem of increasing car accidents lies in the hands of the government, for it has all the authority to force people to abide to the law by increasing police surveillance, fixing the roads and forcing fines. An immediate move must be made for no more deaths can be beared in this country.
(Car accidents in Lebanon up by at least 12 percent, 2010)
(YASA WEB, 2010)http://www.yasa.org/en/Sectiondet.aspx?id2=237&id=1