Saudi Arabia recorded a 60 percent drop in traffic fatalities between 2016 and 2025, according to the 2025 annual report of the Ministerial Committee of Traffic Safety, published Sunday. The report indicates a historic reduction of traffic fatalities, which fell from 8,632 deaths in 2016 to 4,438 in 2025. Over the same period, the number of injuries decreased from 36,787 to 24,290, a reduction of about 34 percent.
Serious Accidents and Fatality Rates
The Kingdom also achieved a significant reduction in serious traffic accidents. After reaching a peak of 23,263 serious accidents in 2019, the figure declined to 17,805 in 2025, representing a decrease of almost 23 percent. In 2025, the Kingdom's traffic fatality rate fell to 12.05 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with a baseline of 28.8 deaths per 100,000 people in 2016, reflecting an overall decline of about 58 percent.
Regional Disparities in Road Safety
The data highlighted regional differences in road safety performance. The Eastern Province recorded the lowest fatality rate at 7.68 deaths per 100,000 people, followed by Al-Jouf at 8.17. Meanwhile, Tabuk recorded the highest rate at 19.38 deaths per 100,000 people, followed by Al-Baha at 18.73 and Jazan at 18.63. The findings reinforce the need for targeted interventions to address region-specific challenges.
Demographics and Causes of Accidents
Traffic data for 2025 showed that men accounted for the vast majority of road traffic fatalities in Saudi Arabia, representing 86.5 percent of total deaths, compared with 12.8 percent for women. Accidents between moving vehicles remained the most common type, accounting for 92.8 percent of cases, followed by vehicle accidents with parked vehicles (3.7 percent) and fixed objects (1.6 percent). Failure to maintain a safe following distance was the leading cause, accounting for 29.2 percent of cases, followed by sudden swerving (27.9 percent), failure to give way (10.3 percent), distracted driving (5.6 percent) and driving against traffic flow (0.7 percent). Saudi nationals accounted for the largest share of traffic fatalities at 51.4 percent, while Indian nationals recorded the lowest share at 4.8 percent. Riyadh recorded the highest number of traffic-related injuries with 7,739 cases, while Asir reported the lowest figure at 1,229.
Economic Impact and Savings
The report also highlighted the economic impact of road accidents, noting that costs increased by SR2.2 billion ($585 million) between 2024 and 2025. However, road safety interventions implemented between 2016 and 2025 generated estimated savings of SR83.6 billion, excluding the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.
Comparison with G20 Countries
Saudi Arabia continued to compare favorably with several G20 countries in key road safety indicators. The Kingdom reduced its traffic fatality rate to 12.05 deaths per 100,000 people, close to the rates reported in the US (11.6) and Argentina (12.9). It also registered 110 serious accidents per 100,000 vehicles, significantly lower than rates in the US, South Korea and Japan. The injury rate stood at 65.8 per 100,000 people, well below levels recorded in several major economies. Pedestrian deaths accounted for 21 percent of all road fatalities in the Kingdom, lower than rates reported in Japan, South Korea and the UK.
Coordinated National Efforts
The report attributed the progress in road safety to coordinated efforts by member agencies of the Ministerial Committee for Traffic Safety. The Ministry of Interior expanded automated traffic enforcement through more than 4,100 monitoring systems covering speeding, seatbelt, mobile phone and red-light violations, while the Ministry of Transport and Logistics Services achieved a 98.75 percent compliance rate with roadwork and traffic diversion safety standards. Meanwhile, hospitals treated 65,577 traffic injury cases during 2025, including 1,288 critical cases transported by emergency teams. The Saudi Data and AI Authority utilized advanced analytics to identify accident hotspots and risk patterns, while the Saudi Red Crescent Authority reduced average emergency response times to nine minutes, 11 seconds, trained 4,980 individuals in first aid and delivered awareness programs to more than 2.2 million people.
