Okaz/Saudi GazetteRoad authorities are urging motorists to obey speed limits and not vent their testosterone by vandalizing speed cameras or assaulting traffic control employees. The appeal comes after an unidentified person smashed the glass of a traffic control vehicle parked on the road next to the maternity hospital in Madina recently. This is the latest in a spate of attacks aimed at Saher traffic control employees, who many citizens maintain are more interested in collecting fines than preventing road deaths. The Saher traffic control system was put in place a year ago in response to a 2009 World Health Organization (WHO) report that Saudi roads were the deadliest in the world, with 49 per 100,000 people killed on the roads each year. The authorities are becoming more alarmed with reports of angry motorists “assaulting and insulting Saher employees themselves”. One Saher employee says that bullets were fired against the system's camera creating large holes in it, forcing Saher employees to run away from the scene. In Madina, officials report incidents of dousing Saher cameras with benzene and setting them on fire, smashing the camera with a sharp tool, throwing stones, rear-ending Saher vehicles and smashing a Saher vehicle's glass with a rock. In response to rising public anger, Director of Madina Police Maj. Gen. Saud Bin Awadh Al-Ahmadi, has directed that Saher vehicles, employees and cameras be stationed at specific locations and not be moved away from them. The employees can only change the locations after coordination with the authorities concerned so as to guarantee their protection. However, Maj. Gen. Al-Ahmadi insists that Saher has contributed greatly in curbing traffic violations and decreasing the level of accidents on the country's roads. Officials insist Saher has reduced the number of traffic accidents but agree its implementation was incorrect, with many seeing it as ‘a system for collecting money from fines imposed on violators.' A survey of the Traffic Department and other officials in Madina region has come up with some findings on the efficiency of the system. In response to the anger, there are proposals to erect signboards to flag speed cameras, which will be posted only at traffic accident black spots. But officials urge motorists to abide by the speed limits to avoid committing violations and being detected by Saher cameras or traffic police patrols. Motorist's awareness of penalties and cameras leads to reduced speeds which then reduce accidents and fatalities. Just hours after its operation in Madina, the Saher system registered 4,300 traffic violations confirming that a large number of motorists do not respect traffic regulations. The report gave Saudi Arabia five points out of 10 in the effectiveness of abiding by speed limits, and two out of 10 for the effectiveness of enforcing the use of protective helmets by cyclists and motorcyclists, and five out of 10 for the enforcement of safety belts by automobile drivers, and two out of 10 in enforcing the laws regarding child passengers. A traffic spokesman says ‘the Sahar system has educated people who love to speed.' Yet motorists are coming up with their own innovative response to the system. New forms of deceiving the Saher system, include ‘placing mud on the front number plate, putting masking tape around a side of the number plate, tampering with letters and numbers on the plate, bending the front number plate, or placing a reflector somewhere close to the front number plate to reflect the flashing of a Saher camera.' Madina Traffic Department spokesman Col. Omar Al-Nazawi, says ‘such tricks will be treated as traffic violations and not crimes' but warns that they ‘are punishable by a fine ranging between SR500 and SR900'. __
