Abstract
Saudi Arabia is a vast country of 2,149,690 km2 , and is the largest Arab state in Western Asia. The Kingdom has been categorized as a high-income nation. It has a total population of approximately 27 million, one-fourth of whom are expatriates, with the highest population density (per km2 ) of 101 in Jizan, and 38 in Makkah, and the lowest of 2.8 in Najran, and 3.6 in Al Jawf. In KSA, motor vehicles are the main means of transportation within, and in-between cities. According to a recent estimate, more than 6 million cars are found on the roads of KSA. According to the morbidity and mortality records in the Ministry of Health hospitals, 30% of beds are occupied by RTA victims, and 81% of deaths in the hospitals are due to RTIs. KSA has recorded 86,000 deaths, and 611,000 injuries in RTAs with 7% resulting in permanent disabilities. The economic implications of RTAs estimated in terms of potential productive years life lost were examined in a study that reported a 31.6% increase in deaths due to RTA among males in 1997-2002 compared with a 1.3% increase in deaths due to RTA among females, and this percentage is increases with the number of vehicles and the numbers of road inside and outside the cities also. Road traffic accidents are a major health hazard with 19 killed daily, and 4 injured every hour in KSA. The young and economically e productive age groups are the most affected. In industrialized countries, the gross loss due to accidents is 1 - 2% of the national income, while for KSA, this loss has been estimated to be between 2.2 and 9%. The accident or injury reporting system in KSA has been much improved over the last couple of decades. Legislation on seat belt use has been put into practice, along with fully operational speed camera systems in large cities under the control of police departments, and police department record keeping of road mortalities and collisions. This improved reporting system shows a paradoxical rise in the magnitude of the problem over the years. The WHO has identified 5 Road Safety Pillars, namely: road safety management or policy; road infrastructure; safe vehicles; road users’ safe behavior; and post-crash care. Driver errors has been mostly reported in different regions of KSA as a cause of RTAs, in addition to some deplorable vehicles, and road conditions. However, post-crash care is largely ignored in all possible direct, or indirect evidence on the subject. There is scarcity of local standardized information on RTAs; therefore, measures for injury related mortality and disability are mostly available, either in popular press articles, police records, or WHO projected estimates. The aim of this study was to identify the changing trends and crucial preventive approaches to RTAs adopted in KSA over the last 2.5 decades. This analysis aims to provide helpful information in limiting the overall incidence of RTAs, and the severity of the resultant injuries in KSA.
