Idris Al-Drees
Saudi Arabia, which tops in road accident rates, has a primitive traffic system. The system remains unchanged despite the country’s advancement in many areas and irrespective of the huge increase in number of vehicles and length of its roads and highways.
The increased use of wasta or nepotism has weakened the Traffic Department. Traffic police often ignore violations committed by people from the same tribe or relatives of their friends. This is one of the reasons for the increasing numbers of traffic violations in the Kingdom.
The department’s negligence and negative attitude have encouraged reckless drivers to violate rules, threatening the life of other road users. Traffic police ignore such dangerous driving as if they have nothing to do with their department and duty.
The latest news about the traffic department, which is quite interesting as well as sickening, is that it would withdraw license of drivers if they commit 50 violations. The department knows that the seizure of driving license would not serve as a deterrent as many people drive without a license.
Everything in our country has progressed except driving on our roads where we can witness all types of traffic violations. People have got some kind of confidence that nothing would happen if they violate traffic rules. We see some drivers turning their vehicle from extreme right to extreme left in front of traffic police but the latter just watches the violation without taking any punitive action.
The department has blamed dearth of officers for traffic violations as the number of traffic officers is small compared to the size of the Kingdom’s roads and streets and growing numbers of vehicles. The existing traffic police force is incapable of monitoring violations. The main reason for the traffic chaos and confusion is lack of determination to implement the law as the scourge of wasta obstructs police officers from carrying out their duty and punishing violators.
The catastrophic traffic accidents on our roads claim hundreds of valuable lives, cause billions of riyals worth of material loss and leave thousands of injured as handicapped, must be stopped to take the country to greater progress.
In order to change the situation traffic police should remain vigilant and well-disciplined. They should be present at traffic points and areas having heavy traffic to stop and punish violators.
Despite the government’s efforts to implement various laws, we still lag behind and this demands from the Kingdom to adopt some of the successful traffic systems in Europe.
We should implement the best practices to ensure smooth flow of vehicles. This will help motorists drive their vehicles with happiness and satisfaction without worrying about road crashes. This will definitely reduce the number of deaths on our roads.
