RIYADH, 13 June 2005 — The member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council are working to unify traffic laws. The move aims to check the growing number of accidents, reduce the rates of mortality and disability due to accidents and streamline the whole traffic operation in GCC countries.
“The effort to unify traffic regulations on the part of the six-nation GCC will help to reduce both human and monetary cost of accidents,” said Col. Rashid Salim Al-Muhairi, director of security department at the GCC General Secretariat.
“The GCC is likely to have a unified traffic law within three years,” he said, adding that the GCC secretariat had already drafted the new law. The draft has been distributed among the member states for review before submitting it to the GCC interior ministers for approval.
Col. Al-Muhairi said accidents and fatalities are on the rise and the authorities are highly concerned. “But once a well-studied unified law is adopted, we will see a significant drop in these accidents,” he said.
The Kingdom alone reports about 250,000 accidents, killing some 4,000 people, annually — one of the highest accident rates in the world. The country loses about SR20 billion annually because of the large number of accidents.
“A unified GCC traffic law was proposed years ago. Some countries have benefited from the draft as a reference legislation and incorporated some of its clauses into their own law. As many changes have taken place since then, the GCC secretariat has decided to introduce some amendments to it and table it for review,” Col. Al-Muhairi said.
The Gulf countries already have a unified traffic penalty system. The procedure for paying traffic fines has been simplified under the system. “Earlier, if a Saudi, for example, committed a traffic violation in the UAE, he would be sent back from the border point to pay the fine in the UAE. Now he can continue his trip and has to pay the fine only upon renewal of his license,” said Al-Muhairi.
