Motor Vehicle Periodic Inspection (MVPI) stations will be set up in all cities of the Kingdom by next year, Sulaiman Al-Ajlan, Director General of the Traffic Administration, has said. The initiative is the latest of several programs aimed at cutting the number of road fatalities in Saudi Arabia which are amongst the highest in the world. Al-Ajlan maintains that the Kingdom's car inspection centers are amongst the world's most advanced and that they all function as per international standards and criteria. The vehicle itself is often the main cause of an accident, he said, adding that people would be educated about the importance of periodic maintenance and inspection of their vehicles, Asharq Al-Awsat reported Monday. Al-Ajlan was speaking at a symposium on the impact of periodic inspection, held by the MVPI administration, and sponsored by Riyadh Traffic Police. Of the eight million vehicles in the Kingdom, only about 1,800,000 are inspected annually, Al-Ajlan was quoted as saying. Brig. Ameen Abdulhameed, Assistant Director General of the MVPI and supervisor general of the symposium, said all car owners should have their vehicles inspected “not for the sake of the inspection company, but to avoid fatalities”. “It is our responsibility to deliver this service and guarantee the quality of inspection based on the strictest criteria, to discover any hidden flaws in the vehicle,” he added. Thomas Klukas, from the International Motor Vehicle Inspection Committee (CITA), said the international organization inspects two million cars annually. “We provide the service, and issue recommendations to the world based on developments in the field.” He said CITA services advise 50 other countries, often through road safety organizations in European countries. “Implementation of this system must be via governments,” he added. Saudi Arabia came last in a 2009 World Health Organization road safety study, which showed 49 out of 100,000 people died on the country's roads each year.
