Driving Licenses, Traffic Accidents and Casualties Analysis
Saudi Arabia
Problem Statment
Traffic accidents was the main reason of health hazard in Saudi Arabia [1]. Traffic authorities have been working hard on reducing the number of road accidents in Saudi Arabia by forcing new rules [2]. To investigate the problem and solutions this analytics study is conducted to compare between the regions, and to find which has the highest number and causes against the lowest to improve the society and save lives.
Executive Summary
Traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia fall 30% a year [3]. Makkah and Riyadh has the largest numbers in accidents with a dramatic different comparing with the other regions. The new punishments for traffic violations, traffic safety equipment affect in decreasing these numbers [3].
Datasets
- Driving Licenses.
This dataset contains Saudi Arabia Driving Licenses Issued By Administrative Area for 1993–2016, and 1993–2019. Data from General Authority for Statistics . Follow datasource.kapsarc.org for timely data to advance energy economics research [4]. - Traffic Accidents and Casualties.
This dataset contains Saudi Arabia Traffic Accidents and Casualties by Region for 2016. Data from General Authority for Statistics. Follow datasource.kapsarc.org for timely data to advance energy economics research [5].
Preprocessing
After exploring the data, we can observe missing data, and unnecessary features to my analytics. In addition, for the Traffic Accidents and Casualties dataset, the dataset needs to be transform to wide to get the most advantage to analysing the casualities. Furthermore, to enhance the merging process the features names need to match.
Statistics and Investigating the trends
- The highest number of issued driving licenses between 1993–2017 was in Riyadh in 2017 with 495307 licenses.
- The lowest number of issued driving licenses between 1993–2017 was in Tabouk in 2015 with 915 licenses.
- The highest mean of traffic accidents between 2016–2017 was in Makkah in 2017 with 145541 accidents.
- The lowest mean of traffic accidents between 2016–2017 was in Al-Baha in 2017 with 1414 accidents.
Visualization and Key Findings
From the above plots we can see that even with the high increasing in the issued driving licenses, there is a high decrease in the number of indicators in the year 2016–2017.
In addition, the high number of issued driving licenses in Riyadh in 2017 consider very high comparing with the other regions and the decreasing in number of accidents is obviously high.
To investigate more about this, I upload an updated dataset that include 2018, 2019.
The number of accidents continue to decrease with the increasing in the driving licences numbers. After allowing the woman to drive in Saudi Arabia the new rules and regulation that forced by the traffic authority help to decrease the accidents numbers.
After analysing the year relations, the next step is to find the highest and lowest regions.
As observed in investigating the trends section, the regions with the high number of accidents are Makkah, Riyadh, and the lowest is Al-Baha.
Conclusions and Recommendations
As we see there is an increasing in driving licences over the years wherever there is a decreasing in traffic accidents. The main causes for decreasing traffic accidents to fall 30% a year are tough new punishments for traffic violations, including fines and lengthy prison sentences for causing injury or death, and a crackdown on mobile phone usage. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia has also introduced traffic safety equipment including high tensile fencing, protective barriers and rotating shock absorbers to reduce injuries [3].
Key takeaways
- From the above analysis the highest number of accidents for 2016–2017 was fro regions Makkah, Riyadh.
- In addition there is a dramatic difference for the issued driving licenses for Makkah, and Riyadh comparing with other regions.
- Makkah has the highest number in traffic accidents with 145541 accidents where lower region is Al-Baha with 1212 accidents.
- Riyadh issued driving licenses was the highest with 495307 licenses in 2017, on the other hand the lowest was in 2015 in Tabouk region.
- The high population of capital Riyadh and Hajj and Umrah seasons in Makkah might consider as main reasons for high number of accidents in these regions.
- The new rules forced by the traffic authority after allowing woman to drive help to decrease the accident numbers.
Recommendation
- Develop driving training program methods, and manage or motivate drivers through supervisory such as, coaching and leadership. Also, the appropriate driving training space with road challenges would help to think and act before accidents happens.
- Rules and punishments from the government for the negligent drivers who break any type of rules.
- Spread the awareness and statistics of number of accidents using the social media to reach to all the society.
References
[1] PhD MRCGPN.J.Shanks, Road traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia.
[2] Lovin Saudi. 2021. The Main Cause Of Road Accidents In Saudi Arabia Has Been Revealed And It Is Hardly A Shocker. [online] Available at: <https://lovin.co/saudi/en/news/main-cause-of-road-accidents-in-saudi/> [Accessed 2 January 2021].
[3] Anderson, R., 2021. Saudi Road Deaths Fall 33% In A Year. [online] Gulf Business. Available at: <https://gulfbusiness.com/saudi-road-deaths-fall-33-year/> [Accessed 2 January 2021].
[4] Datasource.kapsarc.org. 2021. Driving Licenses Issued By Region. [online] Available at: <https://datasource.kapsarc.org/explore/dataset/saudi-arabia-driving-licenses-issued-in-the-kingdom-2004-2008/information/?disjunctive.administritive_area&sort=time_period&location=5,24.37495,45.08024&basemap=jawg.streets> [Accessed 2 January 2021].
[5] Datasource.kapsarc.org. 2021. Traffic Accidents And Casualties By Region. [online] Available at: <https://datasource.kapsarc.org/explore/dataset/saudi-arabia-traffic-accidents-and-casualties-injured-dead-2008/export/?disjunctive.region&disjunctive.indicator&sort=time_period> [Accessed 2 January 2021].
