For Day Three of the World Atlas Of Bad Driving we focus on the Middle East, a cradle of civilization and, sadly, the site of so many of its problems.


You can put away your tired old woman driver jokes for a day, as they don't generally drive in this region. However, like all the other regions we'll be covering, we're not exactly going to show you the good side of these countries. Whatever conclusions you want to draw from these examples, what we see here is the same old story we see everywhere-when poorly-trained people aren't paying attention, bad things happen. Also, in the Middle East as everywhere, those rowdy youths just can't be trusted. Click Next to begin your tour.

Don't forget to check out previous chapters of the World Atlas of Bad Driving!

NATION OF ORIGIN: Saudi Arabia

NATURE OF INCIDENT: There's an active car scene here, and like many cultures that are simultaneously very strict and very wealthy, the youth tend to blow off steam in big ways. In this case, that includes drifting, which we suggest could be the basis for an extremely interesting if annoying youth summit. However, in this case, drifting includes hitting a spectator, who seems to take it quite well.

NATION OF ORIGIN: Saudi Arabia

NATURE OF INCIDENT: Sandstoms, as we've already seen today, are awesome forces of nature. Perhaps you'd expect Saudis to be able to handle them better, but hey, in the upper Midwest the snow catches them off guard every winter.In any case, this is the aftermath of an accident, but still very gripping.

NATION OF ORIGIN: UAE

NATURE OF INCIDENT: What would the Atlas of Bad Driving be without a tunnel? This example at the Dubai airport is actually a well-lit, well-constructed tunnel with only moderate traffic density, but it only takes one scatterbrain.

NATION OF ORIGIN: UAE, Dubai

NATURE OF INCIDENT: No idea whatsoever what could have happened here, except to say the crazy SUV driver seems to have passed his crazy on to the flatbed driver.

NATION OF ORIGIN: Iraq

NATURE OF INCIDENT: This incident actually involves a foreign driver with a bit more steel in his vehicle than the local. Unusual conditions apply and may or may not be present in the rest of Iraq. Also, we're not passing judgement, but how? How did that guy not see it coming?

NATION OF ORIGIN: Iran

NATURE OF INCIDENT: Hey, look, there's drifting in Iran! And oof, they're not necessarily good at it either. Maybe there's more that unites the world than divides it after all.

NATION OF ORIGIN: Iran

NATURE OF INCIDENT: An intersection in Tehran. Unlike yesterday's Indian intersection, they possess and more or less follow traffic signals, but there the differences end.

NATION OF ORIGIN: Iran

NATURE OF INCIDENT: Car surfing is apparently pretty big in Iran, and this rather terrifying cell phone video is a stunning example. The Cloverfield-esque low quality just adds to the impact.

NATION OF ORIGIN: Isreal

NATURE OF INCIDENT: This famous horse-on-car incident is so unusual that you can't even classify it except to say it's Biblically, Old Testament-weird.

NATION OF ORIGIN: Afghanistan

NATURE OF INCIDENT: A beautifully done video diary of an American serviceman's trip along the Jalalabad highway serving Camp Phoenix. If this guy got nothing else out of his tour of duty, we bet he's a much safer driver now.