Jeddha, July 04: The growing number of road accidents in the Kingdom causes heavy human and economic losses to the country. According to one official, the annual costs of treating accident victims are enough to build three refineries.
As many as 485,931 accidents took place on the Kingdom’s roads last year, killing 6,458 people and injuring 36,486. The number of accidents has been found to increase during the summer vacation.
According to the traffic police in Jeddah, 270 people were killed and 2,093 injured in 47,120 accidents in the past six months. Speeding and violation of safety regulations were the main causes of these accidents.
Maj. Gen. Muhammad Abusaq, a member of the Shoura Council, said the 150-member consultative body has been urged by the higher authorities to make proposals to cut down the number of road accidents. He also emphasized the need to strictly enforce traffic regulations.
Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi, former chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee and professor of traffic and transport engineering at King Saud University, said Saudi Arabia has one of the highest rates of road accidents in the world. “About 70 percent of accident victims suffer from full or partial paralysis,” he pointed out.
He estimated the annual costs of road accidents at about SR26 billion, which is equal to four percent of the country’s gross domestic product. He said about one-third of government hospital beds are occupied by accident victims. “About 45 percent of accidents are caused by speeding,” he pointed out.
Dr. Mohammed Bakhsh, director of the emergency department at King Fahd Hospital, said the Ministry of Health was conducting a detailed study on the costs of treating road accident victims at public hospitals across the country. He said the study would be published in four months.
“According to preliminary estimates, medical tests and care given to an accident victim will be SR100,000-SR120,000. This is a huge waste of money. On learning the amount spent for treating accident victims each year, a Saudi Aramco official said the money is enough to build three oil refineries,” Bakhsh said. “The number of road accidents goes up during the vacation season in Jeddah due to an increase in traffic due to the huge influx of tourists and holidaymakers. Most accidents occur after 5 p.m.,” said Dr. Tamim Saati, consultant orthopedic surgeon at King Fahd Hospital.
Dr. Fadhil Abideen, head of the orthopedic surgical department at King Fahd Hospital, said his department receives 10 to 15 road accident cases with varying injuries a night. “We conduct about three surgical operations each week to fix backbone injuries,” he added.
In a previous statement, Traffic Department chief Maj. Gen. Fahd Al-Bishr said about 50,000 people died and more than 300,000 were injured in road accidents in the Kingdom over the past 10 years.
During an interactive discussion at King Fahd Security Academy in Riyadh, the traffic chief also said Saudi Arabia suffered a massive economic loss of SR100 billion as a result of road accidents during the period.
—Agencies