Police shoot at runaway car… to save the driver

Saudi police decided to shoot at a car travelling at high speed as their last resort to save the driver after his vehicle developed a technical fault and rebuffed all his attempt to stop it.

The Saudi man was driving his four-wheel car at 120 km per hour on a motorway just outside the northern town of Hafr Al Batin when it uncontrollably began to gain speed to reach 220 km per hour.

After giving up his attempt to stop, the panicking driver used his mobile phone to call the police and tell them about his ordeal.

“Police sent a patrol which stopped on the motorway where that car was heading their way,” Alriyadh newspaper said.

“As it passed past them, they shot at its rear glass and smashed it…the car then began to slow down before it came to a standstill.”

The paper quoted Colonel Daifullah Al Jabali, head of Hafr Al Batain traffic police, as saying that they told the driver they would shoot at the back of his car so he would take precautionary measures.

“Our decision to shoot at the car was based on opinions by some experts that such vehicles will stop if their glass is broken…they were true as the car did stop and the man was saved from a certain death,” he said.

Alriyadh quoted the driver, Abdullah Al Tawala, as saying he lost control of the car after the brakes and other systems failed to respond.

“The car refused all my attempts to stop it or slow it down…I was told by police they would shoot at the rear if the car and I agreed at once,” said Tawala, who was admitted to hospital with slight injury.

Police said the car, a Japanese-made Toyota Landcruiser 2010, would be taken to the dealers to identify the problem.

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