Ramadan Road Rage in Sana'a

During the first two weeks of Ramadan 117 people were killed in road accidents. Thats more than were killed in clashes between Government troops and Al-Qaeda.

Not all these fatalities are attributed to road rage, some of them where pedestrians, some people simply fell off the back of a truck.

I have seen some road rage however. Once incident on the bus from Jama'ah Sana'a, as we drove by the University of Science and Technology, a taxi driver did something to bother the bus driver who quickly cut him off, and stormed out of the bus with his jambiya unsheathed to chase down the taxi driver. I don't know how this incident ended because I disembarked and walked home.

An incident I saw today involved a young man. A stupid one. There were a small group of young men standing around on the corner near Huda supermarket on Zubairy street and one of them suddenly and without provication smacked one of the others in the face. Of course a pursuit ensured , into the traffic and ended with the perpetrator being hit by a car a flung into the air some distance. He got up and cheered his heroics. Poor car driver was freaked out.

Sana'a is a crazy place at the best of times and Ramadan hasn't done anything to temper tempers.