JEDDAH, 4 September 2005 — Even though they don’t drive, Saudi women, it seems, are responsible for half the country’s traffic accidents. A report published two weeks ago in Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, a sister publication of Arab News, said that half the Kingdom’s traffic accidents were caused by women.
According to the report, which based its information on studies allegedly conducted by Saudi universities and the traffic administration, some of the reasons are women’s being unaware of how to cross the streets safely, opening car doors into traffic as well as fights between husbands and wives.
It did not, however, name the universities or specify which traffic department in the country was involved in the study.
When the writer of the article was asked for clarification, he said he had relied upon a study done by “The Gulf Traffic Research Center” in Kuwait. He added that he had relied upon King Saud University for the number of traffic accidents caused by women. He explained that he had not meant to include all kinds of accidents. Though not clearly mentioned in the article, he said that he was talking only about car accidents where women were found at the scene.
In an attempt to get to the bottom of this, Arab News asked Col. Mohammad Al-Qahtani of the Jeddah Traffic Administration for his comment. “There is no way that women could be responsible for 50 percent of traffic accidents even if they are at the scene,” he said.
He pointed out that women could certainly be involved in accidents — such as being hit by cars or being a passenger in a car involved in an accident but that to hold women responsible for half the Kingdom’s traffic accidents was “a great exaggeration.”
Col. Al-Qahtani told us that the General Traffic Administration in Jeddah had not cooperated with any institute outside the Kingdom and that he had never heard of anything called the Gulf Traffic Research Center in Kuwait. When asked whether a husband and wife fighting played any role in causing traffic accidents, he said that if it did, it would not be mentioned in the police report.
Al-Qahtani cited a problem the police face regularly. He said a number of accidents involving people being hit by cars took place among students at the Education College located on King Fahd (Sitteen) Street. It turned out, he said, that many parents and drivers drop the girls on the opposite side of the street from the college and force them to cross the road during peak traffic hours.
“Who is to blame for this? Women’s lack of awareness or male drivers too lazy to drop women in the college parking lot?” he asked.
