oa The challenges of driving licenses in Saudi Arabia

The losses caused by traffic accidents constitutes a large socio-economic problem for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and has led to an in-depth study of the driver, which is the major factor in the cause of traffic accidents in any region of the world. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's booming economy has resulted in the employment of large numbers of immigrants who work as professional drivers in Saudi Arabia, who come from different cultural and social environments which contributes to an increase in the human factor as the major cause of traffic crashes. This paper summarizes a national study conducted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of 2074 traffic crashes during the year 2011. This study also included interviews of 1067 trainees at driving schools in the same period. The study has shown that the human factor constitutes 76% of the causes of crashes in the study sample and it has also confirmed the increased crash risk for young Saudi drivers when compared to older age groups, it also showed a higher crash involvement of non-Saudi nationals over the age of 30 years. This study concluded that the number of professional drivers involved in traffic crashes from foreign nationalities is higher than the Saudis and Arab drivers, and it also shows that there is an increasing number of non-professional Saudi and Arab drivers involved in traffic crashes when compared with other nationalities. The study also indicated that there was a greater than expected rate of traffic accidents rate involving heavy vehicle drivers when compared to drivers of private vehicles. There is also a higher rate of injury accidents involving drivers of government vehicles than other professional drivers. The study also indicates that drivers of private company and government vehicles are causing more crashes than family drivers and taxi drivers. The study encourages professional drivers to learn and understand the basics of the Arabic language or English, it also recommends that the professional drivers to reassess their driving and health fitness on a regular basis and provide them with training and cultural courses that suit them and more frequent for those who are older than 30 years. The study also recommended the need to increase the standard of training programs in driving schools through utilizing visual media including video and films for the effective delivery of information to trainees of many different nationalities and culturally diverse backgrounds.