Study reveals poor road safety for Middle East

Road safety in the Middle East continues to decline, according to the latest data available. There were 945,000 road crashes in the 5329 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in 2012, a rise from the 853,700 in 2011 according to a recent study. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have particularly poor records for road safety. Saudi Arabia had 589,258 crashes in 2012 while Qatar had 252,614 crashes in the same period. In particular, Saudi Arabia is said to have 19.1 road fatalities/day, on average, based on figures from the General Directorate of Traffic, with 23 deaths occurring for every 100,000 people. These two countries were followed by Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, and Bahrain in the GCC for road crashes. These crashes are estimated to cost a total of US$23.25 billion in economic damage each year, based on a study done on 1,100 people involved in accidents, where 872 had been injured.