KUWAIT CITY, 18 March 2004 — With about one million vehicles on its roads, Kuwait reported yesterday an 18.1 percent rise in the number of deaths from traffic accidents last year.
Interior Ministry Assistant Undersecretary Maj. Gen. Thabet Al-Muhanna said that 372 people died last year, 57 more than in 2002, as a result of 45,400 traffic accidents. In addition, 405 people were seriously injured.
In the first two months of this year, 88 people have already died in traffic accidents, some 40 percent higher than last year’s monthly average, according to Maj. Gen. Al-Muhanna.
Kuwait has a population of some 2.5 million people, 900,000 of whom are indigenous citizens and the rest foreign workers and their families.
Maj. Gen. Al-Muhanna said traffic police issued over 2.4 million tickets, more than two tickets per vehicle.
The Interior Ministry introduced a new traffic law in 2001, slapping tougher penalties on traffic offenders in a bid to curb a rise in road accidents.
Casualties dropped slightly that year and the following before climbing again in 2003.
Hundreds of sophisticated cameras and radars have been installed on the country’s main roads in a bid to stem a rise in serious traffic accidents, mostly caused by speeding and running red lights.
Offenders, whose pictures are stored on CDs at the Traffic Department, are required to pay heavy fines and foreigners who repeatedly break the law are deported.
Driving in Kuwait can be a knuckle-clenching experience, with young motorists racing at up to 200 km (125 miles) an hour, failing to indicate and ignoring road signs.
