JEDDAH, 23 December 2002 — More than 61 percent of the motorists in the Kingdom do not adhere to speed regulations while 30 percent of them ignore the signal lights and run the red, according to a recent study on traffic accidents.
In the study conducted by the Faculty of Science at King Saud University, 65 percent of the people surveyed said it is the responsibility of the traffic department to make the roads safe, Al-Watan reported yesterday.
However, 54 percent of those surveyed believed that education and awareness campaigns also have a significant role in making people drive safely.
The rate of accidents in Saudi Arabia is considered the highest in the world with an average of 12 people killed daily on its roads. Four injuries are reported every hour, according to a study conducted earlier by the national panel for traffic safety. The ratio of death cases stood at 32 per 100,000 of the population, while that for injuries to the number of accident was 71 percent.
Of those involved in accidents, 16 percent do not possess driving licenses. And only 21 percent of motorists are insured in the country.
The study also found that 61 percent of the people attributed the excessive number of accidents to speeding while 26 percent viewed that violation of driving rules was the cause for it. Nine percent held technical faults in road construction as the reason for the high rate of accidents.
The study showed that in 79 percent accidents the conduct of other drivers was also involved. The participants also viewed that the will to implement traffic regulations without fear or favor and better training for the traffic officials in discharging their duties were essential to stop the carnage on the roads.
While 77 percent called for tough punishment for traffic violators, 84 percent recommended the point system for violations as a deterrent. There were also people who said the traffic personnel should be thoroughly trained first before any regulation was implemented. While some of them complained about the dangerous driving style of young people and taxi drivers some others demanded that the minimum age for driving license must be 22 years.
According to a report of the Health Ministry 18 percent of the deaths in the Kingdom was following traffic accidents while diseases accounted for 19 percent.
More than 4,800 people were killed and over 32,000 injured in traffic accidents in the Kingdom last year, according to the report compiled by the national panel for traffic safety last year.
Saudi Arabia loses over SR21billion annually on account of the sharp increase in traffic accidents.
The holy city of Makkah tops in terms of the number of traffic accidents followed by Riyadh, the Eastern Province and Asir, said the report released yesterday. It said most of the accidents were caused by speeding and reckless driving.
Referring to Makkah and Riyadh as the most accident-prone cities, the report said that more than 94,000 traffic accidents were reported from Makkah alone last year. Makkah was followed by the capital city where a total of 80,067 accidents were reported during the same period.
