JEDDAH, 2 November — Speeding was the cause of 42 percent of accidents in the Kingdom during the past 30 years, according to Col. Ayed Al-Malky, head of the information committee for the traffic awareness campaign in the Makkah region.
Speaking to Arab News, Al-Malky said the ongoing traffic awareness campaign was designed to enhance traffic awareness by focussing on all members of a family including women and children.
He said the ongoing traffic awareness campaign would focus on the two main causes of accidents — over-speeding and drug addiction. He said the campaign was launched in a bid to check the growing number of accidents.
"Deaths from road accidents have reached alarming proportions in our country. Their number has exceeded the number of deaths in wars in certain countries," he Al-Malky said.
He said more than 87,000 people were killed and about 65,000 were handicapped by road accidents from 1970 to 2000. "Many of the handicapped still receive treatment in hospitals," he said.
Al-Malky said reckless driving and failure to heed traffic rules were the other main reasons for the accidents.
"About 78 percent of the accident victims were aged below 45, and 40 percent were under 25," he added.
Hit-and-run driver held: Police arrested a car driver in Baha on Wednesday who had fled the scene after running over a 50-year-old woman. Police tracked down the driver within an hour of the accident.
In Taif, meanwhile, security officers arrested a gang allegedly involved in stealing cars, Al-Jazirah newspaper reported. The gang leader had earlier been convicted of a number of crimes.
The police in Mawiya, a town in the Taif governorate, have returned the stolen cars seized from the gang to their original owners.
