YANBU, 18 June 2007 — Traffic cops in this northwestern Saudi city have reported an increase in traffic violations recently, which they attribute to Saudi students out celebrating the end of the school year by joyriding.
Authorities here said they have detained 285 traffic violators since the beginning of final exams last week, or about 40 violations per day. As is usually practice, the violators were detained for 24 hours and their cars were impounded. These violations have mostly been from young Saudis driving recklessly on public streets, which is a rising trend in the Kingdom.
Meanwhile, a deadly car accident on the Umlij-Yanbu highway left two children in critical condition and their parents dead.
“The driver, a 37-year-old father accompanied by his wife and two young children, lost control of his car near Yanbu when the back left wheel slipped out of its place completely, said Capt. Hummaed Al-Sahafi, head of the Accident Department in Yanbu Traffic Police.
The car flipped several times and all the passengers were thrown out of the vehicle. The two parents died on the spot as the car landed on top of them.
The stretch of highway, where the accident took place, is nicknamed locally “Death Road” due to the high incidence of accidents on the narrow two-way road that links Umlij with Yanbu. The road is heavily trafficked as it links the main artery heading north into Jordan, Lebanon and Syria with the Saudi coastal cities on the Red Sea in the north.
