Saudi Arabia 2nd in ME in accident fatalities

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia ranks second among Arab countries and 23rd globally in terms of deaths due to road accidents, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report.
According to statistics, a car accident occurs every second, while 17 people are killed in crashes every day on average in the Kingdom.
The usual causes of accidents include the use of cell phones while driving, ignoring the red light, overtaking from the wrong side and stopping in areas designated for people with special needs.
“There’s a need for a more strict implementation of traffic laws in the Kingdom in view of the lack of discipline among drivers, which frequently results in arguments between drivers,” according to a media representative and former university professor.
The WHO report noted that road accidents claim the lives of over 1.2 million a year, and that 90 percent of these occur in developing countries despite the fact that they contain only 54 percent of the total number of cars in the world.
WHO attributed the deaths to the absence of laws regulating driving behavior, as well as the high speed limits in these countries, in addition to the lack of good road planning.