Good news for Saudis and expats alike: Riyadh has, over the last five years, reduced traffic accidents resulting in death by 50%! Injuries resulting from motor vehicle accidents are markedly down, by almost 60%. This is the result of greater enforcement of existing laws, this Saudi Gazette article reports, and new traffic regulations should reduce the numbers further. Now the same traffic schemes need to be exported to Jeddah, Dammam, and the smaller cities across the Kingdom.

Riyadh road deaths down by 50%

RIYADH – Road deaths in Riyadh fell by over 50 percent between 2004 and 2008, with an even greater drop registered in motor accident injuries, a traffic safety committee heard on Wednesday.

The Higher Committee for Traffic Safety, chaired by Prince Sattam Bin Abdul Aziz, Acting Emir of Riyadh, was meeting to review the five-year plan which concluded last year and heard that the death rate fell from 35 persons per 100,000 vehicles to 17 during the period of the plan. Injuries fell from 125 to 52 per 100,000 vehicles.
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