Amal Al-Sibai
Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — It is high time to correct bad driving habits, educate the youth on traffic safety. It is imperative for everyone behind the wheel, young and old, to abide by traffic safety rules.
Numbers and statistics are spewed out in different media outlets each year, but driving behavior has not improved in the Kingdom.
According to the traffic directorate, the number of traffic accidents during 2011 reached over 544,000 cases.
These accidents resulted in more than 39,000 injuries and 7,153 deaths. Almost 75 percent of those who died were young. A World Health report stated that traffic accidents between 2006 and 2013 caused financial losses to the tune of SR7 billion a year.
Accident victims occupy a fifth of the beds in government hospitals in the Kingdom and a majority of them require long-term rehabilitation therapy.
Is it difficult to unlearn bad habits? No. Start by taking it easy on the gas pedal; speeding is one factor in 65 percent of accidents in the Kingdom. Focus on the road; driver errors and distraction play a role in about 80 percent of traffic accidents. Slow down on yellow and stop on red; violating signal rules at intersections is one of the other factors in 50 percent of traffic accidents. Often, a combination of a number of these factors are at play in a single accident. Simple practices may seem insignificant, but they may well be the difference between life and death.
According to Jeddah Traffic Police, the three most common driving mistakes that motorists in the Kingdom make, are: not wearing seatbelts, using the mobile phone or talking on the phone while driving, and changing lanes haphazardly.
This week is the 30th Gulf Traffic Week; it was launched by Prince Mishal Bin Majed on Saturday at Andalus Mall in Jeddah.
Members of Jeddah Traffic Police and volunteers held short seminars and activities at the mall for hundreds of visitors; displaying signs and distributing educational literature. They also have scheduled several school visits to target adolescent boys in schools who are quick and eager to get behind the wheel, without first understanding the traffic safety rules and how grave the consequences of ignoring them can be.
The goal is to promote three positive driving habits that can help protect lives: fasten your seatbelt, avoid talking on the phone or texting while driving, and learn how to change lanes safely and carefully — without speeding to overtake another vehicle and never getting into another lane suddenly without using caution and turning on the blinker lights. A change in awareness must take place.
A study by an engineer at King Saud University, Salaheddine Bendak, found that 60 percent of drivers in Riyadh wear seatbelts, and only 24.5 percent of the front seat passengers do so. Compare this to the United States; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that the average seatbelt use among drivers is 88 percent nationally. Seatbelts are the single most effective traffic safety devices for preventing death and injury, according to the NHTSA. Wearing a seatbelt can reduce the risk of crash injuries by 50 percent, and especially reduce the risk of serious head and spinal cord injuries. The NHTSA reported that seatbelts saved more than 75,000 lives between 2004 and 2008.
In areas in the United States where laws against use of mobile phones while driving are being forcefully implemented, there has been a significant reduction in the number of accidents, according to a Stanford University study published by Odinakachi Anyanwu.
In Saudi Arabia, there is a specified speed limit and the use of mobile phone while driving is banned. Similarly, it is illegal to be behind the wheels without fastening seatbelts. But many motorists do not take the rules of the road very seriously. Until when?
