Thursday, May 01, 2008

I have questions...

There are some bad-behaviour-on-the-road stories on page four of this morning's Gulf News which raise questions in my mind that such stories always raise.

Whenever there's some personal injury, a very precise percentage of the damage is given. For example, today in three cases mentioned we're told:

"...a two per cent permanent disability to his chest...leaving him with a five per cent permanent disability... a seven per cent permanent disability to his nose..."

A seven percent disability to his nose? A two percent chest disability?

How is such a precise percentage of damage determined? Is it relevant? Does the sentence increase as the percentage damage increase? Why do they do it?

I find it all very strange.


By the way, the nose damage relates to this item:

The court earlier sentenced a 28-year-old American to three months in jail for flashing his middle finger, cursing an Emirati employee and leaving him with a seven per cent permanent disability to his nose following a road rage incident.

Look, I don't want to trivialise the incident, but I have to ask. What did the American do, stick his finger up the victim's nose?


Gulf News have the story here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

While I dont condone any road rage incident, it is telling that the innocent "victims" in such cases almost always fit a profile, the trigger is almost always maniacally flashing, and they also quote the innocent victim as saying "I just use my high beam because the car was so slow".