* No data available on causes of road accidents

* Stiffer penalties for violations of road rules

* Women drivers to be held at protection homes

By Khaled Al-Balahdi

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

DAMMAM — Traffic accidents cause an average of 20 deaths in the Kingdom daily, according to Majed Al-Arquobi, undersecretary for roads at the Ministry of Transport.

Speaking at a meeting on traffic safety in Dammam on Tuesday, Arqoubi said the Transport Ministry was making strenuous efforts to bring down the rate of fatal road accidents. The goal is to bring down the rate of deaths from road accidents to one for every 100,000 people, he added.

"This will save the lives of more than 2,400 people by the year 2020," he said.

Arquobi said the rate of traffic accidents in the Kingdom reached 26.8 for every 100,000 people, which is a very high rate by all standards.

He said it was a difficult task to obtain a correct picture on the number of traffic accidents in the Kingdom due to a lack of a centralized center to collect data.

"There are no data on the causes of road accidents," he added.

Mayor of the Eastern Province Fahd Bin Mohammed Al-Jubeir has said a traffic accident on the Kingdom's roads every minute, causing annual losses of more than SR20 billion.

The meeting was also told that the Ministry of Interior would make arrangements with the Ministry of Labor and Social Development to use social protection homes to hold women detained for driving violations.

Director General of Traffic Brig. Mohammed Al-Bassami told the meeting that the traffic rules will be applied equally without distinction on both men and women drivers.

He said the department was working to make penalties violators of traffic rules harsher. He said the new rules would become effective when they were approved by the legislative authorities.

Bassami said the mobile phone usage was responsible for a majority of traffic accidents on the Kingdom's roads and warned that the motorists who use the mobile phone for talking or texting would be severely punished.

He said foreign driving licenses would be recognized only in cases where a bilateral agreement existed between the Kingdom and the country that issued the license.

Many Saudi women hold driving licenses issued by foreign countries and they drive own vehicles when traveling or staying abroad. After the Saudi government lifted the driving ban on women in the country, many other women have obtained driving licenses in countries like Jordan and hope to use them once the decision will come into force next June.