Saudi Arabia: Road crash deaths plummet 51%

Abu Dhabi: The number of serious accidents in Saudi Arabia has dropped by 34 per cent, while the number of deaths from traffic accidents has plummeted 51 per cent, Saudi Arabia’s Interior Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz, said Tuesday.

Statistics show deaths dropped to 13.5 per 100,000 people from 28, although the minister did not mention the time span in which the decrease happened.

Every day, road accidents claim more than 3,600 lives worldwide, with a total of 1.35 million deaths annually. The majority of victims are young people aged between 15 and 29 years old living in low-income countries, according to WHO 2020 statistics.

Between 20 and 50 million more people suffer non-fatal injuries, with many incurring a disability as a result of their injury.

Prince Abdulaziz said on his Twitter account the Saudi government has paid attention to traffic safety, and made it among the goals of the Kingdom’s 2030 vision, and with the institutional work among the relevant authorities to accomplish this, high professionalism has contributed to achieving the efficiency of traffic control and the optimal employment of technology.

According to WHO, road traffic injuries cause considerable economic losses to individuals, their families, and to nations as a whole. These losses arise from the cost of treatment as well as lost productivity for those killed or disabled by their injuries, and for family members who need to take time off work or school to care for the injured. Road traffic crashes cost most countries 3% of their gross domestic product.