Reckless drivers who obscure plate numbers blamed for road accidents

The young men hiding their number plates on the city’s roads cause accidents that maim and kill thousands of motorists every year, according to drivers here.
These youngsters hide their plates by spraying on it, sticking tape on it, obscuring it with mud or bending it. This is to prevent Saher cameras from recording their traffic violations, which includes speeding and jumping red lights.
Rafat Shah, a motorist, said these young men normally fix their plates so that they can pass through checkpoints unhindered. But when the police are not around they engage in dangerous driving that endangers the lives of others. He said they regard the city’s roads as their personal racetrack.
Another motorist, Mohammed Ibrahim, said he believes accidents are increasing on the city’s highways, because there is news every other day about accidents in local newspapers.
“Such accidents happen only because these drivers do not care about others and put their own and other lives in danger. There was recently a very bad accident in which two Saudi youths died because of speeding,” he said.
He said the Jeddah Traffic Department has installed Saher cameras to prevent accidents but these young men do not understand the dangers of speeding.
Dr. Muzammel Ahmed, a motorist, said that Maj. Gen. Mohammed Hassan Al-Qahtani, the director of the Jeddah Traffic Department, issues messages regularly about safe driving behavior but these are ignored by some drivers.
According to Zaid Hamzi, spokesman for the Jeddah traffic department, 599 deaths and 3,800 injuries occurred on the city’s roads in 2012.
In Saudi Arabia, there are about 7,100 road fatalities every year and 38,000 seriously injured individuals, of whom 7 percent are permanently disabled. According to the General Directorate of Traffic, the Kingdom has 23 deaths per 100,000 with an average of 19 road fatalities occurring daily.