According to a report carried by this newspaper on Friday, traffic accidents are depleting a large portion of Saudi blood banks’ reserves, leading to a big rise in the demand for rare blood groups. Blood banks in the Kingdom suffer from shortage of blood of different groups, especially O+blood.





Of course, this is not a problem confined to the Kingdom. A major portion of Oman’s blood stock goes into treating road accident victims, each requiring 20 to 40 units of blood. The high number of injuries from car accidents, especially in summer months, has drained the blood banks in some European countries. Experts say an emergency patient needs three times as much blood as a regular patient during surgery.



What makes the problem so acute in Saudi Arabia is the alarming rise in the number of road accidents and the resulting casualties. According to World Health Organization, Saudi Arabia has the world’s highest number of deaths from road accidents. An average of 17 people die on the country’s roads each day, a report by the Kingdom’s General Directorate of Traffic has revealed. Over the past two decades, Saudi Arabia has recorded 4 million traffic accidents, leading to 86,000 deaths and 611,000 injuries, 7 percent of them resulting in permanent disabilities.



There are economic costs too. The growing number of traffic accidents in the Kingdom cause damages worth more than SR87 billion a year, according to an estimate made by



Dr. Sesame bin Hassan Kawther of King Abdulaziz University.



In 2012, traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia numbered 485,931, with 9 million traffic violations annually and 6,458 deaths. This translates to 13 deaths for every 1,000 accidents, according to the Saher website.



A recent study at the King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology has warned that if the current rise in accident rates is not checked, Saudi Arabia may register over 4 million traffic accidents annually by 2030. Some 97 percent of accident victims require transfer to hospitals.



Yet all too often people speed along as if they owned the road, completely oblivious to any dangers ahead and with little or no consideration for other road users — drivers as well as pedestrians.



For example, many of the crashes on the Madinah ring road are caused by drivers who ignore warning signs and refuse to adjust their speed and driving to the increased danger. Crazy driving, speeding, crossing red lights and use of mobile phones while driving are the main reasons for road accidents. The Kingdom has good roads but dangerously speeding vehicles and inattentive drivers can turn even perfectly serviceable roads into death traps.



If there are drivers who habitually ignore traffic rules, part of the blame should go to traffic authorities who often fail to rein them in . No doubt, the government has made some initiatives, but their efforts fall short of an aggressive road safety campaign. It is learned that Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is considering a new traffic law under which drivers committing three grave offenses within the span of one year will be jailed. This is a welcome move. In addition to incarceration, the authorities may introduce stiff monetary penalties for major aberrations and consider impounding vehicles involved in repeated violation of traffic rules. No less important is the need to place strict control on using mobile phones while driving.