A high-speed chase took place between police and a speeding driver recently on the Hafr Al-Batin-Qassim road. The car was clocked going at a speed of 220 km/h. Police pursued the car for some time before they finally used live ammunition to stop it. So far, it was as if the police were chasing a criminal. This is far from the truth. The vehicle's young driver was unable to stop the car because its cruise control system malfunctioned. Highway police shot the car's rear window to disable the cruise control system and probably saved the young driver's life. The number of technical faults that occur in cars on Saudi roads is comparable with the number of medical mistakes that take lives on a regular basis. And just as people are helpless in suing hospitals, they are also powerless in front of car dealers. The violations being committed by car dealers are numerous. Many technical faults may occur when a car is being manufactured and though the purchase contracts should be annulled because of such defects, this never happens. Moreover, when a customer wants a fault to be fixed under the warranty, he is accused of misusing the car. Recently, customers have been complaining about a certain car manufacturer whose vehicles' cruise control systems are prone to malfunctioning. This is a very serious problem and it may even cause injury or worse to the occupants of a car. When so many accidents have occurred because of malfunctioning cruise control systems, what has the Ministry of Commerce and Industry done to protect road users? The ministry has said it has not received any complaints. Instead of denying the obvious, the ministry should send technicians to verify the claims and, if proven, halt the sale of faulty vehicles. The ministry asked car owners to inform it, via its toll free number, of accidents caused by technical faults. I want to assure the ministry that it will never receive any such call because the car's driver will already be dead! It is clear that the ministry is waiting for more deaths to occur before it moves to act.
