As many as 4,000 school students in the city will be participating in a two-day safe driving program starting Saturday. The program titled “Safe Driving” announced here Wednesday at a press conference is said to be the largest campaign of its kind in the Kingdom. Anas Abu Dawood, Director of the Students' Activities Department at the Jeddah General Directorate of Education (JGDE); Col. Zaid Al-Hamzi, Director of Public Relations at the Jeddah Traffic Department and Omar Mohammed Hindi, CEO of Taajeer, announced the launch of the campaign. The program aims at spreading awareness among motorists and enhancing social responsibility among youth who are reportedly involved in nearly 40 percent of road accidents in the Kingdom every year. As per a report recently released by the Saudi Traffic Department, during 2008 more than 485,000 road accidents were reported in the Kingdom killing 6,485 people, an average of 17 people per day. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), road accidents result in an estimated cost of $518 billion worldwide on governments, which creates an economic and workforce burden on the health care system. Abu Dawood said that the aim of the campaign, which is a private initiative, is to enhance cooperation between the government and the private sectors to check the increasing number of road accidents. He pointed out that road accidents in the Kingdom are mostly caused due to violation of traffic regulations. “For this reason, such a campaign is of great importance so that we can join hands to minimize road accidents and increase awareness of the importance of following traffic rules,” he said. He said that the media is unquestionably an important partner in conveying the message to both individuals and families. Talking about the training program, Hindi said that while the government assumes a major role in this regard, Saudi society in general must play its part by creating common ground in terms of discipline, cooperation and receiving such awareness campaigns with a positive attitude. Col. Al-Hamzi said that such programs would hopefully reduce the annual rates of accidents. “Every 90 minutes, one person is killed in a road accident. These accidents also cause one disability every 15 minutes. Moreover, these deaths and disabilities cost us some SR13 billion annually,” Al
