By Fatima Al-Dibais

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

DAMMAM — The employment of Saudi women in the Traffic Department (Muroor) is under active consideration of a high-level ministerial committee constituted to carry out studies about the necessary arrangements to implement the royal decree allowing women to drive.

The committee comprises representatives of the ministries of interior, finance, and labor and social development.

The ministerial committee will give advice within 30 days from the issuance of the Royal decree and then implement the decree by June 2018.

Sources said that traffic departments in various parts of the Kingdom have reduced punishments against women caught driving.

They said women caught driving will not be detained and will only be fined a minimum sum of SR500 and a maximum of SR900 for not holding a regular driving license.

The Traffic Department in Riyadh announced that it had registered a normal traffic violation case against a woman who was shown driving a car in a video clip.

A woman driver recently died in Jeddah when she ran into a cement barrier. Her husband, who was accompanying her, suffered serious injuries.

Another woman who was driving on Huda Al-Sham road between Jeddah and Makkah hit a truck and sustained serious injuries for which she was kept in a private hospital in downtown Jeddah. Her male companion, a 13-year-old Jordanian, died in the accident.

The Traffic Department, however, warned against giving driving lessons to women on the roads and public places.