Dr. Mahir ibn Saad Al-Jadid, director of the rehabilitation services at the Military Forces Hospital, shared with Al-Jazirah newspaper recently some sobering statistics on car accidents in the Kingdom.
Five thousand people die in Saudi Arabia each year in 1.3 million road accidents. About 29,000 people are injured due to collisions annually. Statistics show that about 129,000 traffic citations are issued each year, and the total cost of car accidents is estimated at SR21 billion.
Clearly, one of the most dangerous and devastating threats to Saudi society is the chaos on our streets and highways. For every person that dies in a vehicular accident, nearly six people are rendered paralyzed, amputated, mentally retarded, deeply scarred, heavily fractured or otherwise maimed in some awful fashion.
It is universally true that the biggest cause of road accidents is speeding. The faster traffic moves, the more people die. It is that simple. Add to that a general ego-driven disregard for following rules, and you have a recipe for more death and injury.
So if it is a fact that speed crazy imbeciles are the cause of death and injury, where are the traffic police?
“Traffic regulation violators or drivers who exceed the speed limits are subjected to be arrested or paying a penalty,” said Muhammad Al-Qahtani of Jeddah Traffic Department. “Traffic police officers are present in Jeddah’s roads and streets watching and observing.”
All right. But is it working? Has any efforts by authorities actually shown a reduction in death and injury? Does the government even keep accurate statistics to show that its efforts have saved lives?
I would like to stress that whatever is being done by police should have proven results. We need to do something to decrease deadly car accidents that are killing people every day.
