RIYADH, 20 February 2007 -- Saudi Arabia is in the process of drafting a new traffic law system that will replace the old one whose rules and regulations have not been changed for the past 35 years.

Maj. Gen. Fahad Al-Bishr, director of the Traffic Department in the Kingdom, told Arab News yesterday the new law was in its final stages.

"It will soon be finalized," he said, adding that the new system will be a breakthrough by changing many of the old laws that had been implemented for decades without alteration.

The new law will make it illegal to use a mobile phone while driving, a crime punishable by a fine. This would make Saudi Arabia the second Gulf Cooperation Council member state to adopt a law on mobile phone use while driving. The new law will also make it a punishable offense not to use a seat belt or a child safety seat for infants. The current law only requires drivers to use seat belts.

"We seek to implement this on a nationwide scale," said Al-Bishr. "Violators who do not abide by these regulations will be punished."

Citizens and residents in the Kingdom will also soon be able to pay their ticket infractions and fees at any bank ATM, rather than just the ATMs of Al-Rajhi and Al-Riyad.

"This project will include all of the banks in the Kingdom," said Al-Bishr. "It will enable any person to pay his traffic violation or any other traffic fees in any bank he wishes."

The new law will also require car owners to perform vehicular inspection annually, rather than every three years. Under the current system, vehicle inspections are required when a car owner goes to renew his registration (istimara), which is valid for three years.

Al-Bishr downplayed the notion that Saudi Arabia's road fatality rate is among the highest in the world.

"It is still relatively high compared to other countries," he said.

Statistics are hard to come by. Invest East, a Romanian-based company that promotes global investments, published a report in 2000 on road collisions worldwide using statistics from the early to mid-1990s. In the report, Egypt and Saudi Arabia rank at the top respectively for road fatalities (though Saudi Arabia has far more vehicles) while Lebanon was the most dangerous place in the Middle East for pedestrians. However, the report said that statistics are "suspect with Saudi Arabia" because the country reported a smaller number of vehicles on the road in 1993 than in 1991, which would be unlikely since the number of cars increases as the population of a country grows.

Despite the lack of concrete statistical information on road fatalities in the Kingdom, Al-Bishr said the Traffic Police Department in Riyadh is working with the Riyadh Development Authority on various studies to reduce road fatalities and injuries.

"The Traffic Department seeks to implement these strategies in the entire Kingdom," he said. "In addition, modern technology will be used to organize traffic and register violations."

According to a study submitted by the Traffic Department, over 20,000 persons have lost their lives in traffic accidents in the Kingdom in the past 20 years, or 1,000 deaths per year.

Al-Bishr said that there were also new measures to curb speeding on highways.

"The time has passed when roads are monitored by traffic patrol cars single-handedly," he said. According to the new law, some of the highways and roads in the Kingdom will be monitored by radar. The aim of the new radar system is to tighten regulations on speed limits in the city and on highways.

Answering a question on new measures to improve the skills of drivers who graduate from driving schools, Al-Bishr said that measures have already been taken in that aspect.

"The driving test within the boundaries of driving schools has changed," he said. "The test is now on the road, outside of the driving school."

The official said the Traffic Department is continuing to monitor nonregistered motorcycles without license plates.

"Traffic police officers have been given explicit orders on this," he said. "Those orders include fining motorcyclists who do not wear helmets which is a clear traffic violation."

New license plates replacing the current ones will be introduced at the end of this year, according to Al-Bishr.

"The new license plate will consist of information in both Arabic and English," he said. "It will also include an additional fourth digit."

The new license plate will have three letters and four digit numbers. The license plates will come in various colors to organize the sort of vehicles (transport, general, diplomatic). The addition of a fourth digit will enable the Traffic Department to issue over 49 million license plates.

The official said that increasing the number of secret police cars in major cities of the Kingdom was based on the needs of each city. He said that currently, 10 percent of all official government cars on the streets were secret traffic police vehicles.

By Raid Qusti

© Arab News 2007