JEDDAH, 15 July — An average of 700 road accidents, mostly involving youngsters, occur daily during the summer holidays, according to Dr. Ali Saeed Al-Ghamdi, professor of communications and traffic at King Saud University. “The main reasons for these accidents are either speeding or negligence of traffic rules,” Al-Madinah newspaper quoted Al-Ghamdi as saying. Addressing a seminar on tourism and traffic safety in Abha, Al-Ghamdi said the number of cars in the Kingdom increased from 150,000 in 1975 to seven million at present. As many as 700,000 people are killed and 20 million are incapacitated by road accidents around the world each year. According to figures released by Brig. Saleh Al-Turki, director of traffic police in the Ahsa region, 4,848 people died in the Kingdom in accidents last Hijri year alone. This was besides 267,772 others injured during the year. In the year before, 264,326 traffic accidents took place killing 4,290 and injuring 31,059 others. Road accidents also result in a material loss of SR7 billion annually, the traffic official told Okaz newspaper. One person is killed and eight injured every two hours on Saudi roads, according to statistics released recently.
