Col. Abdul Aziz Al-Luhaidan from the Interior Ministry of Saudi Arabia had passed a new traffic law last year according to which any driver caught using a mobile phone while driving had to spend 24 hours behind the bars. Not only that, but their licenses could also be suspended if they exceeded the proposed speed limit of over 160 km/h. With such stringent rules, we thought the ratio of road accidents would decrease, but that didn’t happen.
Statistics show that Saudi Arabia witnesses 1,400 traffic accidents daily that cause 20 deaths and 35 disabilities, which is an alarming figure.
To cater to this situation, a new law has been imposed which not only puts the violators behind bars for a day, but also fines them for SR500 to SR15,000 depending on the number of violations.
- SR500 and 24 hours jail if caught for the first time
- SR1,500 and 24 hours jail if caught for the second time
- SR15,000, 24 hours jail and the will be confiscated for 20 days on committing the same mistake third time
Saudi Arabia has recently introduced many new traffic laws to amend hazardous driving techniques and traffic car accidents. Most of the laws usually focus on fining the violator against the illegal activity, but a couple of them such as ‘Crossing a Red Light’ and the one dealing with ‘Car Drifters’ manage to jail the violator for 24 hours and 2 months, respectively.