Universities, schools and media urged to focus on traffic safety

Eastern Province Gov. Prince Saud bin Naif inaugurated Monday the Second Forum on Traffic Safety at Dammam’s Sheraton Hotel. The forum focused on national partnership and social responsibility.
The forum was attended by Deputy Gov. Prince Jiluwi bin Abdulaziz and other officials, as well as specialists in the field of safety.
Prince Saud bin Naif stressed that the government, supported by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, was concerned about the large number of accidents and the need for traffic safety strategies to protect loss of lives and property.
He said, “It is a national partnership so there is a need for cooperation to follow traffic rules.” He said that universities, schools, media networks and social institutions were responsible for educating the public about safety on the roads.
Abdullah Al-Rubaish, chairman of the supreme committee, stated that the Kingdom was considered among the countries with the highest number of road fatalities and that it is therefore of utmost importance to have a strategic plan with short and long term goals in place to counter this dangerous phenomenon.
He said that the SALAMA Saudi Traffic Safety Organization at Dammam University was established to carry out the plan to achieve a safer traffic environment. He said that this conference had come to represent international and Arabian expertise in the area of traffic safety and to build national partnerships and raise awareness of social responsibility in society. Speakers from inside and outside the Kingdom have been chosen to lead the sessions and 21 research papers have been selected to be studied and discussed during the conference.
Meanwhile, Gen. Abdulrahman Al-Muqbil, the Kingdom’s traffic director, said that it was impossible to achieve the goals of reducing traffic accidents without social partnerships.
According to Chapter 49 of the traffic system, the Ministry of Interior is authorized to create non-governmental organizations, which will educate and increase awareness about traffic safety through social programs.
The general traffic directorate is also using modern technology to replace the old traffic regulation system. As a result, there are now three websites which can process up to 84 million electronic transactions at a time.
Along the same lines, Saudi Aramco President CEO Khalid Al-Falih said that the forum aims to solve an issue of national importance. He said that the statistics show that “We have a serious problem on our hands and there is an urgent need to stop road accidents altogether.”
Al-Falih also said that Prince Jilwai had been working on the issue of reducing traffic accidents for five years. He had suggested piloting a traffic safety committee in the Eastern Province, which would search for solutions to the problem of road fatalities.
The experiment could then be applied to other cities in the Kingdom.
Sponsors and organizers were felicitated with mementos and gifts at the end of the opening ceremony.