Living in Saudi Arabia? Driving on a regular basis? Our guess is that you use your phone when you drive ...
How do we know? Well, a survey conducted by the King Abdul Aziz National Dialogue Center found that a whopping 69 percent of drivers in the kingdom use their phones while driving.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why traffic accidents happen every minute in the kingdom, as authorities said last year.
According to authorities, around 7,000 people die annually in traffic accidents and some 39,000 are injured, making Saudi Arabia one of the worst countries in the world for traffic safety.
Police have been working hard, pleading with motorists to refrain from using phones while driving but the survey suggests that most drivers aren't listening.
But … it gets worse. More than 50 percent of drivers also ignore other important traffic rules. For example:
- 11.9 percent ignore traffic lights
- 33 percent don't use seat belts
- 40.3 percent exceed the speed limit
Interestingly however, these traffic violators apparently want to be caught, with 92 percent urging authorities to strictly implement traffic laws.
Our question: If women drove in the kingdom, would they use their phones?
