Saturday, Apr 22, 2017

Manama: A lorry driver who has jumped 11 red lights will be deported after serving a two-month sentence for reckless driving and paying a fine of 500 Bahraini dinars, a judge in Bahrain has ruled.

A traffic camera caught him on January 22 as he drove through a red light on King Faisal Highway, a major ringroad around the capital Manama.

Upon checking his record, traffic police officers found that he had 10 instances of jumping red lights.

He was summoned by the police and he argued that his speed did not allow him to bring the loaded lorry to a full stop on time and avoid the red light.

However, the traffic police showed him that he was doing 46 kilometres per hour and that the lorry was not carrying any goods at the time and that he could have stopped the lorry.

He was initially sentenced to three months in jail, but a second trial reduced the term to two months to be followed by his deportation from the island kingdom.

Bahrain last year adopted a very strict traffic code that included an extensive use of speed and traffic light cameras.

Foreigners make up slightly more than half of the 1.4 million total population of Bahrain and the increasing traffic congestion and bottlenecks have prompted calls by some lawmakers to limit the number of cars and drivers on the roads.

Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief

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