observations i

this is the inevitable post that has been brewing for a long time.

i haven’t written much about my experience here during the summer mainly because there is so much to write that i don’t know where to start. but the events of the last few days have made me change my mind.

the one thing that everyone complains of in tehran is the god awful driving. it’s true that i might be a little sensitive to this from having lived in countries that have traffic laws that are observed but the reality is pretty bleak. the reasons for the craziness are numerous but the lack of respect for driving laws is so prevalent that some people like my dad (an expert driver) refuse to drive here. there are so many collisions* and injuries and deaths that everyone is connected to at least one tragedy.

an awful accident involved our neighbor in the first month of the summer. he was driving home in his fairly new sedan when he was hit by a truck that had been going too fast and lost control. the only thing that saved his life was the fact that he was wearing a seatbelt. he was dragged out of his car moments before it blew up and he was in the hospital for several weeks. he was lucky that the damage to his neck, although very serious and requiring surgery, did not lead to complete paralysis.

an even more horrific experience happened a month later. it was by chance that we were at the funeral of my dad’s cousin and her daughter. their car too was hit by a truck while traveling outside the city. the driver of the car was also killed. the other passengers were also injured, one very seriously. the moments spent in the cemetery as their bodies were laid to rest were some of the most frightening moments of my life… iranian funerals are anything but quiet and somber affairs. the wailing, crying, lamenting are overwhelming. the human power of empathy is truly a scary thing.

my own constant dread from riding in cars was intensified after this. but after a while it is something that you inevitably become desensitized to... i still complained about the driving. the way cars pull in front of one another at dizzy-speeds and never an indicator light in sight, and every few days (or more frequently) we end up driving past the remains of yet another collision, cars mangled with or without similar damage to human bodies.

so it should come as no surprise that i was finally in my very own collision. coming back into the city last night a friend insisted to drive us. in the highway he was driving pretty fast (read at least 100-120kmh) and like most drivers here there was no attention to the traffic laws. a couple of times i took the opportunity to point out the actions of other crazier drivers that were zigg-zagging through traffic at 140kmh but i guess it didn’t have the necessary effect. i don’t even know what happened, but one moment everything was fine and the next my face was pressed up again the headrest!

it turns out the car in front had slowed down/braked (probably to avoid some other maniac) but our driver did not see this and we crashed right into the car in front. the typical story… thankfully in our case there wasn’t another car behind us and there were no serious injuries (although I froze my face of with an ice pack for the afternoon).

so while i continue on my dreaded ventures in cars around the city, i hope that some mothers who have lost their sons and daughters, husbands, sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers, will start an organization like mothers against drunk driving (madd) except with a more suitable name like mothers against dangerous driving, and change this country’s driving practices once and for all.

* following the practice of my driving instructor from when i was 17, i refuse to call these incidents “accidents”. an accident is “an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally” or “something that happens by chance or without apparent cause”. 99% of these collisions are anything but unexpected and unintentional and can easily be avoided by following traffic laws.