Car safety and Dubai in the same sentence is actually kind of an oxymoron. Driving in Dubai is probably one of the most dangerous things I have made the conscious decision to do in my life. People are complete maniacs when driving here and for the first three months of driving in Dubai I literally thought I was going to die daily. And I often thought that there was no way in hell I would ever put my kid in a car here (if I had one) just because it is so damn dangerous. Many Dubai residents seem to have a different perspective however... They don't seem to worry about having their kids on the roads here, hell, they don't even feel the need to restrain them in any sort of safety device or car seat.See Exhibit A and B below:
Exhibit A:
No, your eyes are not deceiving you, there is in fact a child (sleeping?) on the ledge in the back window of this car. This car is actually identical to ours, which I consider to be a death trap anyway, but why not spice things up by letting your kid take a nap on the back window ledge?Exhibit B:
Has decapitation never crossed these parents' minds? And the funny and/or sad part about it is seeing children sticking their heads out windows and sunroofs while riding in cars here is an almost daily occurrence (read, not remotely surprisingly anymore). You also see a lot of babies riding on laps (including the drivers!) not strapped in or restrained in any way. Just crazy.When I see things like this my first reaction is to laugh, but my second reaction is to immediately mentally make plans to get the hell out of this crazy place. A parent would be reported for abuse and neglect and have their child removed from their custody if they let their kid ride in a car in that manner back home (I have even worked on cases where kids were in DSS custody for less). Not here, where there is no seat belt law, let alone statutory requirement to put your child in a car seat. It's things like this that just remind me yet again that I am not in fact living in a first world country. Oh Dubai.
Not sure how old you are, but up until 25-30 years ago in the US it was very common for kids to ride in the above ways. I took many a nap in the rear window deck, and what good was a sun roof if you couldn't ride down the highway playing "Rat Patrol" and shooting down Nazi planes. A whole lot of newborns came home from the hospital in a plastic laundry basket full of blankets on the floor board to. And don't even get me started on a whole nighborhood full of kids riding in the back of a pickup truck. Perhaps we shelter too much sometimes.
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