ALKHOBAR, 30 March 2003 — The 2003 GCC Traffic Week concluded on Friday with little fanfare. Most of the nation’s police have been focused on providing increased security as a result of concerns arising from the war in Iraq. In the Eastern Province, Saudi Aramco stepped into the void, working to get the message out that traffic safety must be a priority for everyone.
Saudi Aramco produced a collection of educational handouts in English and Arabic. Bumper stickers, quiz pamphlets, coloring books and fact sheets were just a few of the items distributed throughout the Eastern Province to people of all ages in an attempt to raise awareness of the importance of following traffic rules and regulations. A special Traffic issue of Saudi Aramco’s loss prevention magazine Panorama gave detailed attention to the topic.
Panorama emphasized that “traffic safety is a much broader field than experts originally thought. Previous efforts to prevent traffic accidents often focused on driver education. However, it has been the experience of many countries that education alone almost never changes driver behavior. Today, many experts believe that substantially reducing the number of traffic accidents requires a mix of measures aimed at drivers, vehicles, road systems, and, most importantly, traffic law enforcement.”
Saudi Aramco has always supported the GCC Traffic Week activities, but often its participation was confined to its own facilities and staff. This year the company took its activities out on the road, giving presentations at schools and at Alrashid Mall.
“We spent the entire GCC Traffic Week at Alrashid Mall, doing demonstrations, holding contests and trying to educate the public on the importance of traffic safety,” said Saeid S. Al-Shahrani, the director of the Community Outreach Program of Saudi Aramco Public Relations. “This effort is part of our responsibilities to the community under the umbrella of the Community Outreach Program. We have attracted about 1,000 participants on weekdays here at Alrashid Mall and even more on weekends.
“We also went out to high schools in Dammam, Alkhobar and Thoqbah to give targeted safety demonstrations to young drivers. These included videos and lectures on defensive driving. We held quiz contests after the presentations to reinforce the learning effort.”
Speaking with people observing the traffic safety activities at Alrashid Mall, it was quickly apparent that the public has zero tolerance for violators of traffic control regulations.
“I believe that traffic rules must be enforced strictly and rigorously on all,” said Sosan Haroon, a mother of three. “I advocate raising the penalties and including serious time in jail for major offenses. Too often I see traffic police waiting around to give out tickets for parking violations. If we had the police concentrate on ticketing violators for speeding or running signals at major intersections it would go far in reducing the number of deaths from traffic accidents in the Kingdom.”
Muhammad Ammar agreed. “We teach our children the traffic rules,” he said. “We teach them to wear seatbelts. My son, who is six years old, understands the rules about the speed limit and he is always reminding me exactly what speed I should be driving. If a six-year-old can understand traffic safety regulations then a grown man certainly can. Penalties must be enforced.”
Advocates of strict enforcement of traffic rules cite the following:
• On average 12 people are killed daily on the Kingdom’s roadways.
• On average 4 people are injured every hour on the Kingdom’s roadways.
• More than 280,000 accidents took place in Saudi Arabia in 2001.
• Speeding is the No. 1 cause of traffic accidents in the Kingdom, followed by reckless driving.
