Drivers in Libya are not the safest in the world. On my first drive from the airport I was amazed at how most of them drove down the lane stripes instead of between them. A two lane road is commonly driven 4 cars across. A flash of the headlights is used almost equally to symbolize, "go ahead", and "Stop, I'm going to run into you". It's also not uncommon to observe people driving the wrong way down a street, or making U-turns randomly in the middle of a street. It's not suprising to see this in the 'Tripoli Post' last week: During the period between 12 and 18 December 2009, Libya suffered 242 car accidents around the country. According to the Secretariat of Public Security, these accidents resulted on 35 people killed, 132 people seriously injured and 128 people with minor injuries. The causes that have always been cited by security officials include high speed and disobeying of traffic and driving laws.
To put this into perspective, the entire country of Libya is 6 million people, the City of Houston metro area is around 5.5 million. According to TxDOT, Houston had 216 fatilities for all of 2008.
Fortunately, I haven't been involved in any crashes since I've been over here. Having the van I was in get hit in a parking lot is the worst I've had so far. There's been a few other close calls, but it all turned out alright.
Fortunately, I haven't been involved in any crashes since I've been over here. Having the van I was in get hit in a parking lot is the worst I've had so far. There's been a few other close calls, but it all turned out alright.
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