Mahmoud Ahmad

 

I read a statement in a local daily by a traffic department official on the occasion of the Gulf Traffic Week awareness, and it did raise my eyebrows. He said that all studies conducted by universities and other institutions have failed to determine the main reasons behind the cause of traffic accidents, while adding that the traffic department had managed to determine the real reasons behind the causes of traffic accidents.



The official then went on to say that according to statistics conducted by his department and studies conducted on a segment of the society, it has been identified that the main reasons for traffic accidents are running of the traffic lights and speed. The official then gave the usual statistics, which invariably changes from one official to another, on the percentage of people dying from speed and how old they are.



I would like to ask a pertinent question: What is new in his discovery? The reasons he has mentioned have been obvious and his reiterating of the same reasons in the ongoing awareness week looks like parrot-work instead of a real quest for reasons that could have triggered solutions.



I was most interested in the official’s statement as I wanted to know, and I was waiting to hear, of possible solutions that his traffic department had arrived at to put an end to or at least reduce traffic accidents. But as usual it just stayed a one-way traffic — touting statistics.



We are a country that has been suffering from this problem for years and the rate of death because of car accidents compared to our population is one of the highest in the world. If these facts are known, why haven’t the traffic department got to the bottom of the problem to curb the accident rate?



The official at the traffic department is stating with authority that the department has managed to determine the real reasons behind the rising number of car accidents, then it is only logical to assume that they have taken action to rid the blight. So I ask, what have they done to reduce accidents? Discovering a problem is easy, but coming up with possible solutions to avert it and then implementing the solutions stringently is the difficult part.



We are now way past the stage of finding the real causes of traffic accidents or coming up with statistics that highlight deaths, limbs lost and the monetary losses incurred by persons or authority. No one is interested in reading any statistics that highlight increased mortality rate and monetary losses. All shrug if off as if it is irrelevant and nothing unusual.



People would really take note of the statistics if it shows a decrease in the rate of car accidents and deaths. For that would be unusual scenario in the Kingdom, which has repeatedly being highlighting through various drives that ‘speed kills’.



But we all know that there is another major reason behind the rising number of car accidents and death. It is the non-implementation of traffic rules strictly. If the authorities were to strictly implement the rules, than the roads would be much safer to travel.



I was driving in Makkah last Friday night, when the flow slowed down for a signal. I was waiting like all others at the traffic signal, when three cars decided to cross to the other side over the divider. I did not bat an eyelid for this behavior is totally normal in our streets. But I knew that this problem (of jumping over the divider) has become a norm for it got compounded with a traffic officer sitting in his car and watching the cars flout the rules with impunity.



I was under the belief that such rash behavior was carried out only when there was no traffic police to deter them. I waited for the police to light up the siren and signal the drivers to stop with the car names called out loudly through their microphones. But nothing happened, as the car sped away in the opposite directions with those obeying the rules waiting patiently for the green ‘go ahead’.



Another incident that also happened in front of me was as mind-boggling. A youth showed zero respect for authority by drifting in front of a police car, and zooming away. Such irresponsibility on the road should not be condoned. There are hundreds of other examples that you or I could cite, but there is no way to list them all here. Police represent the authority of the government on the street. But nothing really happens when someone defies this authority. The reaction comes only if there is loss of lives and limbs from a particular action.



Sometimes I think that the role of the traffic department is only to earn money from renewing driver license, car registrations and the seasonal campaign to show people that they are doing some work. But their main task is to keep our streets safe and from the statistics that they release from time to time, it shows they are failing to combat the problem.



The near-total absence of traffic officials from the streets could be attributed, sometimes, to being one of the reasons behind the rising rate of traffic accidents. Their presence needs to be felt in every streets. If there is shortage in staff then they can start recruiting more police, and it could in some ways help in easing unemployment.



One sure way of seeing rules being obeyed on the streets is the proliferation of men in muftis. More secret traffic police on the street would go a long way in curbing traffic violations, and in the process accidents. In addition, tougher punishment has to be set for reckless driving. We need to see the revocation of the driving license and a points system for repeated offenses that could lead to drivers being banned from driving. Also the seasonal traffic campaigns against violations should last the entire year.



Drivers should known that traffic officials mean business. We have passed the stage of increasing awareness and we have reached the stage of striking back. Traffic department should strike fear in the heart of reckless drivers as it is too late to inculcate respect in their minds.



— Mahmoud Ahmad can be contacted at mahmad@saudigazette.com.sa.