Global Issue
Reckless driving is in issue all over the world. Some countries have this as less of an issue than others. A research containing 182 different countries in 2010 stated that over 1.24 million deaths occurred in road accidents. The numbers of these fatalities has been decreasing in first world countries, where as it is increasing in countries with low income. The main causes these casualties on the roads in western countries is the drinking of alcohol and texting while driving, both of these make up around 60% of all deaths. Road accidents cause around 20-50 million people to become injured or disabled per year. In the world about 3,287 drivers die daily. Unfortunately most of these drivers that are passing away to do accidents are young, more than half of all road traffic deaths occur within young adults averaging a ages between 15-43. Road crashes rank as the 9th leading cause of death, and is 2.2% of all deaths globally. Road traffic crashes cost about 518 billion U.S dollars in total globally each year. It is said that at this rate if car crashes continue to occur in 2030, car crashes will be the 5th leading cause of death.
Countries that have been considered the safest places to drive in are the United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.
In this graph you can see the number of fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. They use this to find the countries with the most fatalities per year. Currently Saudi Arabia are topping the charts with the most deaths of all countries.
Regional Issue
Driving here in Saudi Arabia is out of control. There are rules that people are supposed to follow but the road traffic police is lacking and people hardly ever get caught.
Speed limits here are on average 45 km/h in roads in the city and 80 - 120 km/h in highways, however it is not the case, it is quite uncommon to see cars following these speed limits and all you usually see are cars flying by. Another terrible habit that occurs in the roads is drivers using there phones while driving. You are guaranteed to see at least one driver either texting, calling or just using their phones when on the roads in Saudi, also it is like a miracle to see someone in a car actually wearing a seatbelt, seat belts are pretty much non existing. Other reasons to why Saudi Arabian roads are unsafe is that drivers don't follow traffic lights, lanes in the roads don't exist, people driving aggressively, drivers having road rages, and young adults preforming crazy stunts in public roads, these are all factors that overall lead up to approximately 20 deaths per day on the roads.
Sometimes there are some drifting competitions that occur on wide and open roads far from the city. It is really interesting for many people so they go and attend these competitions. However these viewers don't have a safe place to be able to see these drifters, what they do is just stand at the edges of the road and watch. This has caused many fatalities over the years. When these drifters are doing there stunts there cars may get to a point where it is uncontrollable, and accidentally they would smash into the crowd. One of these care accidents can cause more than 100 deaths and injuries at once.
The saudi government have to pay huge amount of fees for everything that happens in the roads, it was estimated that in 2014 the government payed almost 10 billion dollars to wars the roads. Data shows that around 1/3 of the people that say overnight in hospitals are due to accidents that happen in the road.
Human Consequences
Millions upon millions of families have lost loved ones due to reckless drivers and car accidents. Even more families had loved ones become injured or even disabled because of these car crashes. A couple of thousands are dying everyday because of this issue. and more the 10 thousand people are becoming disabled and injured because of this issue daily. In Saudi Arabia it is averaged that not a single 30 seconds goes by without having a car crash. I personally can relate to casualties occurring because car accidents. My twin cousins have just graduated from college in America and they came back to Saudi to live their lives. Unfortunately not a single week had gone by before they passed away after a huge car crash with 2 other speeding cars.
Reckless driving is in issue all over the world. Some countries have this as less of an issue than others. A research containing 182 different countries in 2010 stated that over 1.24 million deaths occurred in road accidents. The numbers of these fatalities has been decreasing in first world countries, where as it is increasing in countries with low income. The main causes these casualties on the roads in western countries is the drinking of alcohol and texting while driving, both of these make up around 60% of all deaths. Road accidents cause around 20-50 million people to become injured or disabled per year. In the world about 3,287 drivers die daily. Unfortunately most of these drivers that are passing away to do accidents are young, more than half of all road traffic deaths occur within young adults averaging a ages between 15-43. Road crashes rank as the 9th leading cause of death, and is 2.2% of all deaths globally. Road traffic crashes cost about 518 billion U.S dollars in total globally each year. It is said that at this rate if car crashes continue to occur in 2030, car crashes will be the 5th leading cause of death.
Countries that have been considered the safest places to drive in are the United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.
In this graph you can see the number of fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. They use this to find the countries with the most fatalities per year. Currently Saudi Arabia are topping the charts with the most deaths of all countries.
Regional Issue
Driving here in Saudi Arabia is out of control. There are rules that people are supposed to follow but the road traffic police is lacking and people hardly ever get caught.
Speed limits here are on average 45 km/h in roads in the city and 80 - 120 km/h in highways, however it is not the case, it is quite uncommon to see cars following these speed limits and all you usually see are cars flying by. Another terrible habit that occurs in the roads is drivers using there phones while driving. You are guaranteed to see at least one driver either texting, calling or just using their phones when on the roads in Saudi, also it is like a miracle to see someone in a car actually wearing a seatbelt, seat belts are pretty much non existing. Other reasons to why Saudi Arabian roads are unsafe is that drivers don't follow traffic lights, lanes in the roads don't exist, people driving aggressively, drivers having road rages, and young adults preforming crazy stunts in public roads, these are all factors that overall lead up to approximately 20 deaths per day on the roads.
Sometimes there are some drifting competitions that occur on wide and open roads far from the city. It is really interesting for many people so they go and attend these competitions. However these viewers don't have a safe place to be able to see these drifters, what they do is just stand at the edges of the road and watch. This has caused many fatalities over the years. When these drifters are doing there stunts there cars may get to a point where it is uncontrollable, and accidentally they would smash into the crowd. One of these care accidents can cause more than 100 deaths and injuries at once.
The saudi government have to pay huge amount of fees for everything that happens in the roads, it was estimated that in 2014 the government payed almost 10 billion dollars to wars the roads. Data shows that around 1/3 of the people that say overnight in hospitals are due to accidents that happen in the road.
Human Consequences
Millions upon millions of families have lost loved ones due to reckless drivers and car accidents. Even more families had loved ones become injured or even disabled because of these car crashes. A couple of thousands are dying everyday because of this issue. and more the 10 thousand people are becoming disabled and injured because of this issue daily. In Saudi Arabia it is averaged that not a single 30 seconds goes by without having a car crash. I personally can relate to casualties occurring because car accidents. My twin cousins have just graduated from college in America and they came back to Saudi to live their lives. Unfortunately not a single week had gone by before they passed away after a huge car crash with 2 other speeding cars.