Chaos in Kuwait

Sir,

I have been reading your excellent magazine for over 20 years now and have yet to see any articles which describe motoring in the Middle East.

Driving here in Kuwait is altogether different from driving in the UK, or for that matter, anywhere else in the world. Most roads are littered with sundry wrecked vehicles. It is not uncommon to see, for example, a Porsche 928 embedded in the side of a Mercedes 500 SEL. I believe Kuwait competes with Qatar in having the worst accident ratio per capita in the world. I suppose the fact that Kuwait has more cars per capita than any other country in the world, to some extent, can be used as an excuse for the chaos.

I recently read a newspaper article in which a local driver explained that he did not consider watching TV while driving a dangerous occupation. Apparently, he considered that this required less attention than reading a paper whilst driving! One learns to develop certain specialised driving techniques in order to survive here. It is not unusual to be overtaken both on the off side and near side at the same time. I find that a particularly successful ploy into drive as fast as possible. If one does this, then one only has to worry about the cars one is overtaking, rather than have to worry about the cars also overtaking you. The problem with this theory is that about 90% of other drivers in Kuwait have the same idea.

I’m leaving Kuwait shortly, and returning to the UK, so I bought a 944 new here to take with me. Even with electric sunroof, auto gearbox, turbo wheels and P7 tyres, it only cost £14,000.

DAVID ASHCROFT Safat, Kuwait