Police give out 1,766 tickets within few hours of Tawjihi announcements

AMMAN — In spite of the warnings and awareness campaigns to curb festive firing and other dangerous acts, many were issued tickets after the results of Tawjihi were announced on Thursday, according to authorities. 

The results of the 2019-2020 Tawjihi (general secondary education certificate examination) were announced on Thursday morning and after a few hours, the Public Security Department (PSD) personnel had issued 1,766 tickets for traffic violations, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

Commenting on such practices, Lawyer Jafar Al Qaisi said: "People congest streets with their cars, causing traffic jams as they sit on the cars' windows shouting loudly to celebrate without concern for others."

Bayan Aljwarsheh, a student majoring in "Counselling and Mental Health" said: "On such days, when I hear festive firing, I start running. It is loud and scary, endangering the lives of others... celebrations [can] turn into funerals, and all because of one stray bullet."

"I was once running an errand and from far away, a stray bullet landed in [hit] the hand of a person right next to me in the street, and it was on the day Tawjihi results were announced, so I really hope people will come to finally understand how dangerous and wrong this practice is no matter how you look at it," she added.  

The PSD also arrested four people in Amman and Maan for festive firing when the results were announced, Petra reported, adding that the four arrests happened within the first few hours of the announcement. 

Civil Engineer Mahmoud Shamasseen said: "Expressing joy can be done in many ways, but unfortunately festive firing and drifting have become like a tradition here. Perhaps if there were specialised spaces for the drifting sport with high safety standards, the phenomenon would decrease on such occasions.” 

Mahmoud Musa, whose son passed the Tawjihi exam this year, said that to celebrate, he buys sweets and distributes them to neighbours, friends and family. 

"It is better to give people cavities in their teeth with sweets rather than cavities in their bodies with bullets."