DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s Transport Ministry reported a 33 percent decrease in the number of road accident deaths in the Kingdom during 2018 compared to 2017. The news was announced in a paper presented at the Gulf Traffic Conference, currently being held in Dubai, by the Director General of Safety Department at the ministry. Mohammed Mesfer Al-Aboud presented the paper indicating that the decrease comes after the ministry’s implementation of several projects and initiatives to improve the quality of road safety. The steps, he said are in line with Vision 2030, aiming to reach to only 8 deaths for every 100,000 citizens, compared to 26 deaths in 2015, on all the Kingdom’s roads. Al-Aboud explained that the number of road accidents reached 13,221 in 2018, compared to 17,632 in 2017. Adding that the number of injuries had reached 1,075 during the current year, compared to 14,481 last year. He said that the main causes of traffic accidents that lead to death are reckless driving or drivers being preoccupied by something other than the road, in addition to running over camels and tire explosions, as well as a lack of correct safety measures on vehicles. He noted that the black points system has resulted in a decrease in the number of accidents, deaths, injuries and damage. This has contributed to a financial return of SAR165 million. He expected that the financial return in 10 years would reach SAR3.3 billion, while more than SAR6.6 billion could be collected during the same period if all black points were addressed.