JEDDAH: One person dies every 90 minutes and another is injured every 25 minutes on the Kingdom’s roads in accidents that cause the country annual losses of more than SR13 billion, according to Gen. Fahd Al-Bishr, head of the Traffic Department.
He pointed out that more than 9 million traffic violations are registered in the Kingdom each year. As a result, the authorities are introducing a new automatic system to register traffic violations.
The new system, named Sahir, will be officially announced today at a press conference in Riyadh’s Four Seasons Hotel, said Lt. Gen. Saeed Al-Qahtani, head of Public Security.
The launch is to go hand in hand with an awareness campaign about the importance of the system and the role it will play in reducing traffic violations.
Al-Qahtani said the system will soon be introduced in a number of cities across the Kingdom. He added that the system aims to enforce traffic regulations in a precise and continuous manner, consequently leading to an upgrade in road safety and the quality of the Kingdom’s roads.
Sahir is an electronic monitoring system that relies on a network of digital cameras linked to a database.
Surveillance cameras will relay violations to a main center, which will in turn assess the type of violation and electronically issue penalties, said Al-Bishr.
Cameras will be placed at traffic lights and other strategic locations on major and minor roads. Police vehicles will also be equipped with cameras to authenticate traffic violations in areas that are not covered with stationary cameras, he added.
Cameras will take front and rear pictures of vehicles, capturing images of license plate numbers and drivers. Tickets will be issued by mail and financial penalties could be paid through ATMs, said Al-Bishr.
