Seat Belts Add to Baghdad Drivers' Woes

BAGHDAD, April 17, 2008 — -- Iraq's jaded drivers are not happy with a new regulation requiring the use of seat belts.

Drivers who spend long hours crossing the streets of Baghdad from one checkpoint to another amid April's rising temperatures have greeted the new rule with cynicism. Many who navigate Baghdad's traffic-jammed roads see the regulation as adding yet another burden on drivers.

Um Noor, a teacher who says she's been constantly stopped by the police asking her to wear seat belts, told ABC News that she always responds by saying, "You say that I should wear seat belt for safety but I won't till there will be safety and security in the streets and people don't need a safety belt in a place where security is far from sight."

Another driver named Waleed Raheem said that "I am not against wearing a seat belt but I don't want to wear it while driving in traffic-jammed streets where the speed limit don't exceed 40 kilometers."

Fines for scofflaws apparently differ from place to place and from one police officer to another. They start at 15,000 Iraqi dinars ($12) but some people have told ABC News that they have paid up to 50,000 dinars ($40).

There are reports that some Iraqi police officers finding the new regulation useful as a way of extracting bribes, asking passengers to fork over some cash instead of the full fine.

Critics of the new regulation also point out that it obligates only the car's driver to belt up, not the passengers.

Drivers here are used to inconvenient rules, however. Another traffic regulation bans cars with an odd-number license plate from driving on days when only cars with an even license plate are allowed on the streets.

Responding to critics, Iraqi traffic police Officer Najem Abed Jabir told ABC News that "the Iraqi Traffic Department seek through this procedure to regulate traffic and to reduce risks that may affect drivers for not committing these procedures."

But for Baghdad's drivers, this new regulation is only the latest in a long line of woes afflicting their daily grind.