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Death on Jordan’s Roads

If the current way of thinking about driving in Jordan prevails…

…one in every three families will lose a member as a result of a road accident by 2020.

Over 111,000 traffic accidents occurred in 2007 claiming the lives of 979 people. The figure exceeds that of 2006 by 80.* This means that every 9.44 hours a citizen dies as a result of an accident.

According to a statistical analysis, 37 per cent of traffic accident victims are pedestrians, 27 per cent drivers and 19 per cent front seaters. Passengers sitting in back seats constitute 8 per cent of total injuries and deaths. The analysis also indicated that human error is blamed for 90 percent of accidents with 10 percent caused by other factors such as road and vehicle conditions and bad weather.

*statistics compiled by the Traffic Institute.

Source: The Jordan Times

March 24th, 2008

4 Responses So Far

  • Dave March 24th, 2008 8:22 pm

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    Also in the article…

    Some drivers are not yet ready for a change of mentality.

    “I cannot drive slowly,” said Salem Nassar, a minibus driver on the Amman-Zarqa route.

    “If I do, other buses will make more money than I do, and this will get me into trouble with the bus owner,” he told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

    He added that he has no choice but to pick up as many extra passengers as possible in his daily “race” against drivers of public transport vehicles.

    Nassar claimed that corruption is involved in the law enforcement issue.

    “Even if authorities intensify penalties, it will not do any good. These people [bus owners] have influential people supporting them and they rarely pay fines,” he charged.

    Yesterday in 5th Circle, I witnessed a minibus that careened through at such a high rate of speed, you could hear the wheel wells grinding against the tires due to the bus leaning so sharply.

  • YFA March 24th, 2008 8:58 pm

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    My family was affected almost 13 years ago by one of these needless deaths.

    I wonder how many lives could be saved by simply using seatbelts or kids riding in the backseat rather than on momma’s lap? One road death is one too many…I sincerely hope that they can put a stop to all these senseless deaths.

  • Nix0-san March 24th, 2008 9:12 pm

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    Well, Teaching our people to drive and respect rules is like trying to teach a monkey to fly. I mean most of the low-educated and arrogant drivers think that breaking the rules shows how cool they are, I know it’s really cool .. especially when he kills a child because he’s so damn stupid and Mark my words they RARELY care after that. But then again the child accidents happen in poor areas of Jordan , Where teaching kids and raising them to understand the light and respect the rules in return isn’t so common i am sorry to say. But of course the blame is on the driver because he’s older.. Now there’s a really HUGE Problem in the system, And to fix that .. we need time a lot of time, But the sad part is the killings will go on while we “LOOK” for a cure.

    I am saying what i see and hear , therefore this is my opinion and not a “fact”

  • Hani Obaid March 25th, 2008 12:17 am

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    I was so happy when they put those huge fines up, but then they went and changed the law again to reduce them. I mean if people will break the most important law in the book (not crossing a red light) unless there’s a camera on the intersection. There’s nothing they won’t do.

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