RIYADH — The National Strategic Plan for Traffic Safety in Saudi Arabia estimated the cost of traffic accidents in the country at SR20,196,912,833, which reflects the physical and psychological damage.

A study conducted by researcher Hassan Mohammed using the ability-to-pay method estimated the costs of managing traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia for 2013 at SR41,901,122,606.

According to what Abdul Hamid Al-Moajil, a traffic safety specialist, told Al Arabiya.net, the cost of accidents in Saudi Arabia, based on the estimates of this study, amounted to approximately SR54.9 billion, representing 4.3% of Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product for 2013.

He said: "Traffic safety, in its broad sense, aims to adopt all plans, programs, traffic regulations and preventive measures to reduce or prevent traffic accidents, to ensure the safety of people and their property and to preserve the security of the country and its human and economic components."

There are three axes of traffic safety: vehicle, road, and the human element. Achieving traffic safety requires sound strategic planning, allocating the necessary budgets, good governance, and awareness from community members.

Al-Moajjel stressed in his speech that the cost of traffic accidents, serious injuries and deaths negatively affected the national economy.

The costs of traffic accidents are the sum of the material and moral damage caused by accidents at the individual and societal levels.

These costs are divided into two types: direct costs and indirect costs. Direct costs include the expenses of all medical services provided to the injured, including hospital stays. They also include the cost of damage to public and private property, in addition to the costs of managing traffic accidents.

In addition, there are costs borne by insurance companies for amounts spent on insured vehicles, as these companies determine the cost of repairing the vehicles and paying the amounts to those affected by the accidents — especially if the vehicle owner has comprehensive insurance for his vehicle and others.

As for indirect costs, Al-Moajjel said they include several items, such as the cost of lost national output as a result of human injury and the resulting decrease in per capita income, the decrease in family income resulting from the psychological and the social aspect in the event of disability or death. Indirect costs also include costs that cause harm to society.

If an accident occurs on the roads, this will cause many people to be obstructed and delayed from their work (the costs of traffic congestion resulting from the accident), in addition to the cost of government subsidies provided to those affected in cases of disability or death. All of these costs are often difficult to identify and measure because they are complex and multifaceted.

Al-Moajjel continued: "In numbers, road traffic accidents result in the loss of more than 1.3 million lives and non-fatal injuries to up to 50 million people around the world every year. Many comparative studies have been conducted on the costs of road accidents, including a study published in 2016 that included 17 countries around the world, divided into two groups according to income level; ten of which are high-income countries, and the other seven are middle- or low-income countries.

The study showed that the cost of traffic accidents in rich countries represents between 0.5% and 6% of their GDP while the cost of traffic accidents in countries with middle or low income ranged between 1.1% and 2.9% of their GDP.

The latest study estimated the direct and indirect costs of traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia in 2018 at approximately SR76 billion, representing 2.88% of Saudi Arabia's gross domestic product. Direct costs represented 59.25% of the total accident costs and indirect costs represented 40.75% of the total.

The Chairman of the Traffic Safety Committee and Minister of Health pointed out that Saudi Arabia has made great progress in the area of ​​traffic safety, as it has achieved a 50% decrease in the number of traffic accident deaths, and a 35% decrease in the rate of injuries, according to the results of the latest World Health Organization report. There is no doubt that the cost of accidents will decrease based on the decrease in accidents and the resulting deaths and serious injuries.

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