Outrage, lawsuit and even divorce after MoI starts impounding cars
KUWAIT: Lawmakers yesterday expressed anger over the traffic department’s action of impounding vehicles for offences like using mobile phones while driving and failing to buckle up, and threatened action against the interior ministry. Several MPs raised questions on whether the ministry has the legal power under the law to seize vehicles for traffic violations, while prominent opposition MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei charged that there is some suspicion of serious wrongdoing in the whole affair.
According to security sources, traffic statistics showed that the first eight hours after putting the new regulation into practice yesterday (from 6:00 am to 2:00 pm) witnessed the impoundment of 489 vehicles - 48 in Ahmadi governorate, 65 in the Capital, 80 in Hawally, 15 in Farwaniya governorate, 46 in Jahra, 40 in Mubarak Al-Kabeer, 142 on highways and eight by a special police patrol.
The sources added that if the violating motorist is a woman, a senior citizen or if there is a family onboard, the vehicle will not be immediately impounded and the violator would instead be fined and blocked on traffic systems until he/she willingly hands in the vehicle for impoundment. In a series of questions to the interior minister, Tabtabaei asked if the ministry has conducted a study about the mechanism of implementing the decisions allowing the seizure of vehicles for mobile phone use and if the driver and the front-seat passenger are not using seatbelts. He asked if the study included positive and negative aspects of the measure and demanded a copy of such findings. Tabtabaei was referring to three additions to the traffic law of 1981 that allows traffic authorities to seize vehicles for those offences.
The lawmaker asked if Kuwait has reviewed the experiments of other countries that apply the same measures, or if it is the only country in the world applying such penalties.
Tabtabaei demanded a list of numbers of tow trucks used to ferry violating vehicles and the names of owners - whether individuals or companies. The lawmaker later said on Twitter that there is a suspicion of benefits for a particular company which is providing winch trucks and the area to keep the impounded vehicles. He vowed that he will not remain silent against the reported profiteering in the issue. MP Riyadh Al-Adasani also sent a series of questions to the interior minister about the issue, saying that the traffic department should raise fines instead of seizing vehicles, some of which have been damaged. Adasani asked about the legal basis of the traffic decisions allowing impounding the vehicles, saying that the traffic law does not contain such decisions. He demanded to know the legal foundation that allowed the ministry to add the decisions to the traffic law.
The lawmaker demanded the study that the ministry conducted before imposing the new penalties and questioned why the ministry did not increase fines rather than seize vehicles. He also asked if the body that is authorized to impound the vehicles and collect charges for the seizure and keeping the vehicles is the interior ministry itself, a government department or a private company. Adasani said that if the body is a private company, he demanded the names of its owners and the way they obtained the area to keep the seized vehicles and the tow trucks. He demanded all legal approvals in this connection. MP Askar Al-Enezi called on the interior minister to review the application of the decisions, saying impounding vehicles for traffic offenses is an unnecessary and oppressive measure. MP Mohammed Al-Dallal described the measure as “abusive and unnecessary”, and stressed that the penalties punish the violator’s entire family.
Meanwhile, lawyer Mohammed Al-Ansari yesterday filed a case contesting the new measure, noting that it posed a constitutional violation. Ansari argued that a vehicle is a private property and cannot be impounded, according to the law. “Violators can be heavily fined instead of having their vehicles impounded for two months,” he underlined.
The decision to impound cars also had other repercussions, as only a few hours after it came into effect, a divorce took place. Lawyer Hawraa Al-Habeeb said on social media that a client for whom she was working to settle matters between him and his wife to avoid a divorce called her to insist he wanted a divorce. He said he was on the phone with his wife when a police patrol stopped him. Habeeb said her client urged his wife to hang up, but she insisted on completing the call.