Saudi Gazette report
JEDDAH – The Council of Ministers approved the National Strategic Plan for Traffic Safety that has a key objective of framing a national traffic safety policy specifying broad future traffic plans as well as measures to cut road accidents.
Minister of Culture and Information Dr. Abdulaziz Khoja said that the Cabinet reviewed the recommendations presented by President of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology with regard to the plan and approved a number of measures.
It decided to constitute a higher committee to supervise implementation of the plan. The committee, comprising representatives of a number of concerned agencies, will work under the Ministry of Interior.
It will submit report covering all aspects of implementing the plan, including pros and cons as well as new proposals, to the Council of Ministers. The committee will function until the formation of the Supreme Traffic Council, and that in turn will undertake its duties.
Dr. Khoja said that the Strategic Plan aims to draw a national traffic safety policy outlining broad future directions for traffic safety system in the Kingdom.
The plan will be built on a number of strategies including developing a full-fledged and comprehensive system for urban and transport planning.
The aim will be to cut the percentage of traffic accidents by 10, 20 and 30 over the period of 10 years from the beginning of the implementation of the plan.
Saudi Arabia has the highest rate of road accidents and fatalities in the region. It is among the most dangerous countries in the world for drivers. In particular, the rate of traffic accidents per capita in Saudi Arabia is much higher than in other developed countries. It is expected that if the situation does not improve, Saudi Arabia may have four million traffic accidents a year by 2030.
There are approximately 7,100 road fatalities every year and 38,000 seriously injured individuals, of whom 7 percent are permanently disabled. According to the General Directorate of Traffic, the Kingdom has 23 deaths per 100,000 with an average of 19.1 road fatalities occurring daily.
The country spends about $250 million annually to treat injured drivers. Additionally, each year about $6 billion is spent on matters related to car accidents, which represents about 4 percent of the national income. In other words, car accidents create a massive waste of economic resources and health services along with the trauma and tragedy suffered by victims and their families.
Every 60 minutes in 2014 a person will die on Saudi Arabia’s roads if the country’s accident rate continues at its current pace.
There were 600,000 crashes recorded in the Kingdom in 2012, according to Dr. Hany Hassan, assistant professor of Transportation Engineering at King Saud University. As a result, 7,638 people were killed.
The 2012 accident statistics marked an 8 percent increase from 2011. And fatalities have almost doubled since 2003 when crashes were to blame for 4,293 deaths.
