“These alarming trends prompted the Bosch Group to launch crash avoidance systems that will make a significant contribution to minimizing road injuries and deaths in the Kingdom and the region as a whole,” said Volker Bischoff, general manager of Bosch Middle East, in Riyadh.

“We hope that innovative technologies we have used in these products will raise safety standards in the region’s automobile industry,” he added.

Bischoff said that road accidents had emerged as one of the leading causes of death in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.

On a global level, road accidents cost governments an estimated $518 billion, which creates a burden on the economy and work force according a report released by the World Health Organization.

“Reaction speed and the type of evasive action taken are critical to avoiding road accidents, but in many cases the driver does not react properly,” Bischoff added.

He said that Arab countries continue to pursue effective solutions to bring down the number of fatalities.

The Arab region sees around 40,000 road-related deaths annually, with youths the victims of 60 percent of such incidents, according to the Arab Organization for Road Safety.

Although countries such as the UAE were able to bring down their road death tolls by 10 percent in 2009 through stricter traffic laws and policing initiatives, there is still a growing need to ensure better protection, starting with the vehicle.

Bosch, Bischoff said, has introduced a portfolio of crash avoidance technologies to address road safety issues.

The automotive supplier’s new radar system will be part of the Adaptive Cruise Control and the Predictive Emergency Braking System, which significantly improve driving safety, he explained.