One person dies and four others are injured every hour in road accidents in Saudi Arabia, a senior official at the interior ministry said.
Abdul Jalil Al Saif, director of medical services at the ministry, told the Gulf News that 35,000 people died and 285,000 were injured in road accidents in the kingdom during the last 10 years.
The losses, he said, were estimated at SR21b annually – three times the expenditure on education and health.
He said the demand for cars grows by three per cent annually and the Saudi market absorbs 50 percent of the Arab World's vehicle imports.
"Of 214,000 vehicles imported by the Arab countries last year, Saudi Arabia's share was 155,000," he said.
He said 32,361 people were injured last year in road accidents in Saudi Arabia and these people take up one third of the beds in government hospitals.
Some 1.7 million traffic offences were reported last year in the kingdom, with the province of Riyadh recording 33 percent of them, he said – Albawaba.com
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