Abstract
Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are becoming a major problem around the world, incurring enormous losses of human and economic resources. Recent reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) reveal that each year more than 1.25 million people are killed and 50 million are injured in road traffic accidents worldwide. In Saudi Arabia, statistics show that at least one traffic accident occurs every minute, causing up to 7,000 deaths and over 39,000 injuries annually. In this study, the main causes of RATs in the province of Hail are examined. The data was collected through the use of a survey which was developed to evaluate the effect of influencing parameters on RTA rate. The results show that 67% of RTAs result from human factors, 29% from road conditions and 4% from vehicle defects. Excessive speed and violation of traffic rules and regulations were found to be the main causes of RATs. Low rates of compliance with speed limit signs and seat-belt regulations were also observed. These findings highlight the need of strengthening effective traffic law enforcement alongside with improving traffic safety and raising public awareness.
Highlights
Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are increasingly being recognized as one of the greatest public health issues, incurring heavy losses of human resources along with severe socioeconomic costs worldwide
The surveyquestionnaire consisted of four sections, namely, participants’ general information, driving attitude and practice, traffic regulation knowledge and traffic safety awareness
The results show that 63% of the participants experienced road crashes at least once in the past, where 67% of these accidents are caused by human errors, 29% by road conditions and 4% by vehicle defects
Summary
Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are increasingly being recognized as one of the greatest public health issues, incurring heavy losses of human resources along with severe socioeconomic costs worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that over 1.25 million deaths and 50 million injuries occur worldwide due to road crashes each year. Studies performed worldwide have shown that developing countries represent 67% of world RTA fatalities they own only 11% of the vehicle fleet [2]. An average of 19 deaths occurs daily in Saudi Arabia, which represents the country’s principal cause of death in adult males, aged 16 to 36, giving a rate of 23.3 traffic accident fatalities per 100,000 population [3,4]. Previous studies observed that Saudi Arabia has a higher rate of RATs occurrence than other developing countries with comparable vehicle ownership levels [6,7]. Excessive speed and violation of traffic laws and regulations were found to be the main causes of RTAs in Saudi Arabia [8,9,10,11,12]
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