About 2.5 million traffic offenses were recorded in Riyadh in 2013, witnessing an increase of 13.6 percent over the previous year, when the number of traffic offenses was 2.2 million.

Col Ali Al-Dibaikhi, director of Riyadh Traffic, said a total of 87,682 cars were also seized for various irregularities. The traffic offenses were reported by field traffic teams and the figure does not include those covered under the Saher traffic system.

However, the number of cars seized for irregularities dropped by 16,000 cars compared to last year, data released by the Traffic Department indicated. Drifting also dropped to 678 cases in 2013 compared to 847 cases in 2012.

According to the report, the break-up of offenses was as follows: Not fastening safety belts and other minor violations 800,000, erroneous parking 300,000, breaking traffic signals 200,000, and over-speeding 220,000.

Other offenses include driving without license 187,000 cases, using mobile phone during driving 145,000, traffic reversing 32,000, erroneous overtaking 110,000, and window tinting 152,000, the report said.

Based on data released last week, Riyadh recorded about 505,173 traffic violations in the past two months.

Riyadh region recorded the highest number of road accidents in 2012 at 166,800, which accounts for 28 percent of the total accidents reported in the Kingdom. Makkah region came next at 134,700 (23 percent), followed by Eastern Province at 116,000 (20 percent). The other regions accounted for the remaining 29 percent of accident cases, the report said.