Arab News
HAFR AL-BATIN, Oct 17: Twenty-one people were killed and 11 others injured in three separate road accidents, inclduing a head-on collision that wiped out a 16-member family in this north-central city on Monday.
In the first accident, a vehicle carrying 16 members of a single family slammed head-on into a trailer truck on the Samuda highway at a location 210 km away from Hafr Al-Batin, Al-Watan daily reported yesterday.
The family was returning from Hail after visiting relatives on the occasion of Eid Al-Fitr. An Arab national was driving the truck, which was heading for Qassim to take cement to Kuwait. The truck was reportedly speeding into oncoming traffic to make a pass on a two-lane highway.
All passengers in the car, who included a man, his two wives and 13 children, died on the spot. Another son of the family and his wife were traveling behind the ill-fated vehicle in a separate car.
The victims’ bodies were taken to King Khaled General Hospital in Hafr Al-Batin. The truck driver sustained only light injuries, according to Dr. Abdullah Al-Muhaimid, director of the hospital.
The names of the accident victims or the driver were not given.
Meanwhile, five people died and eight injured when three speeding cars on the Sabya-Qauz road overtook in a wrong manner resulting in a pile-up early yesterday.
According to a police statement, “speeding and reckless driving by one of the drivers of the three cars caused the fatal accident.”
The bodies are kept at the Sabya General Hospital. Police identified the dead as Ibrahim ibn Hassan Hattan, 45, Hassan ibn Muhammad Hattan, 37, Jarada Jaradi, 60, Wael ibn Majid Jaradi, 4, and Fatima Jaradi, 2.
In another accident reported from Hafr Al-Batin on Monday, a Saudi and his expatriate driver escaped with minor injuries when their car hit the rear of a truck carrying petrol.
Arab News
Saudi Arabia, Oct. 17: The number of divorce cases in the Kingdom is increasing compared to the number of citizens. The divorce rate has been some 20 percent for the last couple of years. It means that 33 Saudi women are divorced every day.
Divorce is a psychological and social problem. In many developed countries the rate increased markedly during the 20th century. With all life’s daily pressures and chaos, people are prone to become easily irritated and agitated, making divorce decisions without paying close attention to real problems or trying to solve them.
Incompatibility is another major issue that increases divorce. There has to be intellectual compatibility, physical compatibility and emotional compatibility of a married couple; otherwise life is impossible.
Differences in traditions and customs that vary from one family to the other and from one society to the other in addition to intellectual inheritances some times impact negatively on marriages.
Saudi Arabia recently recognized the dangers from hereditary diseases and the threat they have on the country’s economy and health sectors. The Kingdom recently made premarital medical tests mandatory. The Ministry of Health’s decision was welcomed by all in order to reduce cases of hereditary disease.
Since divorce has became a dilemma worrying many families, we have to come up with a program or some training which will prepare couples for marriage. The Health Ministry, the Social Affairs Ministry and training centers must join hands to offer such programs. People are never free from social issues and complications, moods, attitudes or certain behavior that don’t work well with the opposite sex. Marriage is not just about the wedding night or the wedding gown. People lack social skills to deal with each other which leads to quick negative decisions.
As a human behavioral expert, I have noticed that the nature of humans leads them to beliefs, interpretations and analyses. These might be positive but they might also lead to negative reactions. And the better the person is with communications, the more balanced he becomes socially and professionally and that will result in better psychological health.