The Arabic daily, quoting Naif bin Sultan Al-Sharif, professor of economic law at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, stated that the figures quoted by the academic were taken from the electronic site of the Saher system.

Saher is a traffic monitoring system that uses cameras to check speeding. It has so far been introduced in eight cities, and has proved to be an effective deterrent to reckless drivers. “Saher is an automated system to monitor traffic using electronic networks linking the command and control centers in eight cities,” he said.

Al-Sharif said there were 16 accident-related deaths in the Kingdom every day, and this constitutes a rate of one death every hour and a half. This is in addition   to an average of 96 people injured in road accidents daily.

Al-Sharif described Saher as a system that endeavors to improve traffic safety and implement traffic rules accurately and continuously.

“It automatically registers traffic accidents and speeding. It quickly reports violators. However, the mechanism of its execution has led to a number of citizens expressing their unhappiness over Saher,” he said.

Some drivers, who have listed as repeat offenders due to Saher, have vented their ire on the Saher equipment or even the members manning the equipment.

Al-Sharif, while lauding the introduction of Saher, pointed out that one of the main drawbacks of the system is that the violation is registered against the vehicle, not the driver.

“This is a mistake. It is not necessary that everyone who drives the car is its owner,” he said.

The system depends on the data of the National Center for Information. It jots down the car number on the plates, and from the database lists the violation immediately to the owner. “For this reason car rental companies, government departments and family-owned cars chauffeured by drivers suffer because the car registered in their names are driven by other people,” he explained.

Al-Sharif also pointed out that the speed limit of 120 km on highways and 60 km inside cities is not realistic and suitable. He also criticized the doubling of the fine if not paid within a month.

“There should be a special traffic court where people can appeal the tickets against them by the traffic police,” he said, adding a grace period should also be set in order for the offender to pay his fine.