JEDDAH, 27 May 2004 — The Traffic Department is to introduce a new “points” system which mandates a person’s license be withdrawn if he accumulates 18 points of traffic violations within a year. The system will be introduced on Oct. 15.
“When a driver accumulates 18 points, his license will be withdrawn for three months. If he drives during that period, he will be fined SR900 and jailed for a week,” the department said.
If he accumulates another 18 points in the same year, his license will be taken away for six months. He will be fined SR1,800 and jailed for two weeks if he drives during the period.
For a third accumulation, the license will be withdrawn for a year and those who drive then will be fined SR3,600 and jailed for three weeks. If there is a fourth accumulation of 18 points and a person drives, his license will be completely withdrawn and he will be fined SR7,200 and jailed for four weeks.
If an expatriate who came to the Kingdom as a driver accumulates 18 points three times within a year, his license will be withdrawn and his iqama canceled.
A person can, however, obtain his license two years after the final withdrawal with the approval of the assistant interior minister for security affairs. In that case, he must also attend driving school for a month.
Points are determined in accordance with the seriousness of the violation. Six points will be given for joyriding, violating the rules for overtaking, driving the wrong way, driving while intoxicated, running a red light, failing to stop after a traffic officer’s order, failing to stop at a stop sign, speeding and failing to have an MVPI check.
Drivers will get four points if they violate the priority rule while crossing bridges, tunnels and railroads and if brakes are not working properly.
Two points will be given for not slowing down or stopping at a traffic checkpoint, for driving a truck with its tailgate down or if items project beyond the limits of the body, for carrying more than the specified number of passengers, for violating specified standards and weights, for driving at night or in fog without lights, for violating the rule for using high beams, for entering military groups or processions, for stopping on sidewalks or pedestrian walkways, for failing to give priority to pedestrians and for violating priority signals.
Points will be removed from the computer at the end of every year, the department said. “Every driver will get two points of safe driving if he completes a year without any traffic violations,” it added.
Drivers will be informed of their points when they approach the department to pay fines.
Brig. Fahd Al-Bashir, director general of the department, has called upon all drivers to cooperate with his officers by following the traffic rules.
Traffic officers have been provided with an adequate number of cars to monitor violations in various parts of the country.
According to the new system, the police will have the authority to track down violators but investigations into accidents will remain under the jurisdiction of the Traffic Department.
The department has appointed a considerable number of plainclothes traffic policemen in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. They have been given the authority to stop violators and issue tickets.
