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20 people die in Saudi road accidents daily: Reports

Dammam - The government is working to bring down this staggering figure, saving over 2,400 lives by 2020

In a startling report, on an average 20 people are killed daily in traffic accidents in the Kingdom, 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 2020. 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," said Arquobi.
He added it was difficult to obtain a correct number of road accidents in the Kingdom due to a lack of a centralised center for data collection. "There are no data on the causes of road accidents," he added.
Mayor of the Eastern Province Fahd Bin Mohammed Al Jubeir revealed that traffic accidents in the Kingdom cause annual losses of more than SR20 billion.
Talking about women offenders, the Ministry of Interior said that arrangements would be made in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Social Development to use social protection homes to hold women detained for driving violations. While talking about traffic rules, Director General of Traffic Brigadier Mohammed Al Bassami said that the traffic rules will be same for men and women drivers, adding that the department was working on harsher penalties for violators and new rules would become effective after approval from the legislative authorities.
Bassami informed that using mobile phone while driving is one of the major causes of road accidents and warned motorists against the same.
He added that 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 travelling or staying abroad. After the Saudi government lifted the driving ban on women in the country, many women have obtained driving licenses in countries like Jordan and hope to use them once the decision will come into force next June, report Saudi Gazette.