KSA’s roads ranked most dangerous in the world

Vehicular accidents caused by animals is growing phenomenon, particularly in Saudi Arabia, as the Kingdom registers hundreds of accidents caused by camels each year, resulting in the loss of countless lives, as well as propery worth millions of riyals. The Ministry of Transport spends billions of riyals trying to curb this issue through the building of fences alongside highways, and other responses.
A recent study has shown that 97 percent of all car accidents involving animals in the Kingdom were with camels, and that more than 90 percent of these accidents occur at night. The Ministry of Agriculture has estimated that the number of camels in the Kingdom was approximately 241,893 in 2008, excluding stray camels that live in the desert.
Riyadh alone has 43 percent of these camels, followed by Al-Qassim with 13 percent, and the Eastern Province with 10 percent. More than 500,000 camels move freely in the Kingdom, and are found around Riyadh and Al-Qassim.
The study was conducted by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, and was primarily concerned with the design and publishing of a system that depends on geographic information systems to define the locations of big camel populations in order to avoid traffic accidents. The study was conducted by Dr. Mohammad Al-Zahrani, Dr. Khaled Rajab and Dr. Asrar Al-Haq, and included detailed explanations of major solutions that could contribute to a decrease in the number of accidents caused by camels on Kingdom’s roads.
The study revealed that the number of deaths resulting from traffic accidents between 1999 and 2005 increased more than six fold in comparison to 1992. The total cost of these accidents was estimated at SR13 billion in 2005, and is expected to reach SR24 billion in 2018, unless safety levels are improved.
The World Health Organization has stated that deaths from traffic accidents in the Kingdom mostly result in the death of male adults between 16 and 36 years old, and has labelled the Kingdom’s roads to be among the most dangerous in the world, with 29 fatalities for each 100,000 road users in 2007, in comparison with 19 per 100,000 in 2002. It was estimated that more than 1 million people died or have suffered serious injuries from traffic accidents since 1970, which is more than 4 percent of the population.
Traffic records in Al-Ahsa showed that 6,117 accidents occurred in 1993, and caused the injury of 1,604 people and the death of 159. Traffic accidents in Al-Ahsa increased in 2009 by nine-fold. Traffic accidents that involved camels ranged between 70 to 77 percent of all accidents.