Almost every single day, tuk-tuks finds their way to news headlines as a party in an accident, and somedays, more than one accident.
Those who thoroughly scan the crime sections of newspapers will always notice themselves being greatly bothered by this. How is this small vehicle a direct cause of all these major accidents?!
Their ultimate hope is that this annoyance will be transferred from the hands of the helpless public to the authorities, who are responsible in the first place to confront such a dangerous issue!
It is dangerous because it directly relates to the lives and security of people, and because it requires firm, zero-tolerance action! Otherwise, we’ll find tuk-tuks on highways!
Is it appropriate to have tuk-tuks penetrating cities and squares with this amount of rudeness, this volume of recklessness, and this degree of roistering in the main streets with no deterrence?!
On the morning of Saturday, January 30th, a tuk-tuk was the direct cause of the burning of 12 shops in downtown Cairo, as security services found that the culprit behind the fire had obtained gasoline from a tuk-tuk driver!
That same day, it was the cause of a murder in al-Sharqiya governorate, after a tuk-tuk driver hit and killed a young man. On Sunday, January 31, Egyptian security forces revealed yet another two crimes in Gharbia and Dakahlia, and a tuk-tuk was behind both of them!
This tuk-tuk that hops around the streets should not approach the highways, let alone use them and travel on them recklessly! Tuk-tuks should only be driven by fully-qualified drivers. They should not wind through the narrow streets that ordinary cars cannot reach or move through. Tuk-tuks should not operate unless they have clear, visible license plates.
Then, what has been accomplished through projects that aim to replace tuk-tuks with alternative cars?! The matter is related to security in a more general sense, it is related to the lives of citizens, and it requires more vigilance and more attention. A simple review of the newspaper’s crime section over one month will confirm this!
