Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Apr;36(4):418-24.
doi: 10.15537/smj.2015.4.10003.

Road safety and road traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia. A systematic review of existing evidence

Farah A Mansuri  1 , Abdulmohsen H Al-Zalabani, Marwa M Zalat, Reem I Qabshawi
Affiliations

Road safety and road traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia. A systematic review of existing evidence

Farah A Mansuri et al. Saudi Med J. 2015 Apr.

Abstract

Objectives: To identify the changing trends and crucial preventive approaches to road traffic accidents (RTAs) adopted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) over the last 2.5 decades, and to analyze aspects previously overlooked.

Methods: This systematic review was based on evidence of RTAs in KSA. All articles published during the last 25 years on road traffic accident in KSA were analyzed. This study was carried out from December 2013 to May 2014 in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Taibah University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, KSA.

Results: Road traffic accidents accounted for 83.4% of all trauma admissions in 1984-1989, and no such overall trend was studied thereafter. The most frequently injured body regions as reported in the latest studies were head and neck, followed by upper and lower extremities, which was found to be opposite to that of the studies reported earlier. Hospital data showed an 8% non-significant increase in road accident mortalities in contrast to police records of a 27% significant reduction during the years 2005-2010. Excessive speeding was the most common cause reported in all recent and past studies.

Conclusion: Disparity was common in the type of reporting of RTAs, outcome measures, and possible causes over a period of 2.5 decade. All research exclusively looked into the drivers' faults. A sentinel surveillance of road crashes should be kept in place in the secondary and tertiary care hospitals for all regions of KSA.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

  • Saudi Med J. 2015 Oct;36(10):1250-1
  • Systematic reviews. Minimizing search bias.
    Abu-Zidan FM. Abu-Zidan FM. Saudi Med J. 2015 Oct;36(10):1250. doi: 10.15537/smj.2015.10.12805. Saudi Med J. 2015. PMID: 26446342 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

References

    1. Meena RK, Singh AM, Singh CA, Chishti S, Kumar AG, Langshong R. Pattern of fractures and dislocations in a tertiary hospital in North-East India. Internet Journal of Epidemiology. 2013;11 Available from: https: //ispub.com/IJE/11/1/1444 .
    1. World Health Organization. Global Health Observatory (GHO) data. World Health Statistics 2010. [cited on 2014 March] Geneva (CH): World Health Organization; 2010. Available from: www.who.int/gho/publications/world_health_statistics/en .
    1. Peden M, Scurfield R, Sleet D, Mohan Hyder AA, Jarawan A, editors. World Report on Traffic Injury Prevention. Geneva (CH): World Health Organization; 2004. Available from: http: //whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2004/9241562609.pdf .
    1. World Health Organization. The Injury Chartbook: A graphical overview of the global burden of injuries. Geneva (CH): World Health Organization; 2002. Available from: http: //whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/924156220X.pdf?ua=1 .
    1. The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) 2012. Statistics Department. [cited 2014 Feb]; Available from: http: //www.gcc-sg.org/eng .

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources