A car accident occurs every 10 minutes in Kuwait

According to the latest statistics, a car accident occurs every 10 minutes in Kuwait, Gulf News reported on Thursday. 

The latest road safety figures were announced in a press statement made by Bader Al Matar, head of the country's Traffic Safety Society. 

In it, he raised concerns over the most recent findings. 

“We are facing a dramatic increase in human, social and economic losses as a result of the hike in the number of accidents in the country,” Al Matar said. 

“We have six accidents every hour on average and the figures for June are tragic. We had 40 deaths, nine Kuwaitis and 31 expatriates, and the figure included eight women," he added. 

Al Matar went on to express that the Gulf state's authorities are growing increasingly worried about the issue and are working on launching decisive action plans to solve it. 

”Traffic safety does not happen by chance and careful studies and dedicated efforts are needed," he explained.

“We have to appreciate and implement that prevention is more significant than cure and we need strategies that work. We also need a better traffic culture in which Kuwaiti citizens and foreigners are fully committed to rules and regulations on the road and to ensuring their cars are truly fit for the road. They need to do away with their mobiles whenever they are driving," he added. 

Car accidents aren't a new problem in Kuwait.

Between 2012 and the first half of 2017, the country recorded a total of 917,447 accidents. 

"There were 86,271 accidents in 2012, 89,527 in 2013, 99,047 in 2014, 77,961 in 2015, and 71,582 in 2016," Gulf News reported. 

23,529 accidents were recorded in the first four months of 2017 alone. 

The latest surveys reveal that crossing red lights, excessive speeding and the use of mobile phones while driving are the leading causes of accidents in the country. 

Recklessness and lack of responsible behavior are also major factors. 

In recent years, Kuwait's authorities implemented several action plans aimed at curbing the number of car accidents in the country. 

Authorities implemented heavy fines, launched awareness campaigns and resorted to severely punishing those who break traffic rules. 

However, despite all these efforts, most implemented action plans have failed to bring down the number of car accidents to date and authorities continue to face the need to find more effective ones.