"We cannot deny the risk the Kingdom is facing from road accidents, but statistics from Jeddah Traffic Department reveal they actually decreased from 2009," said Col. Mohammad Al-Qahtani, director of the Traffic Department in Jeddah.

"Although the number of accidents has decreased, traffic safety will still be the officials' major concern."

According to Al-Qahtani, 484,805 accidents occurred on the Kingdom’s roads in 2009, with 6,142 people dying.

"The Kingdom is losing 17 people a day as a result of accidents, and most of those who die are aged between 18 and 30 years," he added. "Most accidents result from speeding, 45 percent of them in fact, followed by driving through a red light and reckless driving."

Al-Qahtani attributes the reasons behind a large number of accidents in Kingdom to a scant regard for traffic laws.

"Most of our young Saudis are ignoring traffic rules, which is why the number of accidents is huge," he added. Statistics from Jeddah Traffic Department reveal that there were around 1.9 million traffic violations in the Kingdom in 2009.

Almost 300,000 of them were caused by using a mobile phone while driving. Over 100,000 violations were attributed to cutting off traffic, and over 60,000 to not wearing a safety belt. Saudis accounted for over half of the violations, with almost 900,000 expatriates committing the rest.

Other statistics from the organization reveal that 207 accidents happened in Jeddah in January 2010, with 34 people dying. This is a decrease over the same period last year, where 285 accidents happened, killing 42.  Chairman of the National Commission for Traffic Safety Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi expressed alarm over the number of road accidents.

"The real danger here is that there is a dramatic increase in the number of disabled people due to traffic accidents — around 2,000 annually," he added.

The enormous rise in the number of traffic accidents, as well as the number of disabled people and the resulting strain on hospitals and insurance companies, costs the Kingdom SR24 billion a year, he said.

The commission is campaigning for more effective traffic systems to reduce the number of accidents.

"We know the reality about the Saudi traffic system, and we have to eliminate its weak points," added Al-Ghamdi.

He also called for a total ban on drivers who accumulate 18 penalty points.

"Young people who do not have a valid driving license cause 20 percent of accidents, which is why we need to increase the number of traffic safety campaigns in schools and for families," he said.

According to Al-Ghamdi, the new Saher traffic system is effective, but he claims that most drivers, especially the youth, are not aware of it.

Social responsibility companies in the Kingdom, including WEDO, have started implementing campaigns to change the driving culture in Saudi Arabia.

"We are planning to involve ministers, media and advertisement companies, researchers and corporate entities in generating public awareness on several issues in Saudi society," said WEDO co-founder and planning director Marvin Zidan, adding that road accidents would be among them. "We are trying to gather all resources to start arranging several effective campaigns that aim to change views about driving cars and study the social and psychological reasons why drivers speed and ignore traffic."