In the last six years, Jordan has lost 3,511 people due to traffic accidents, so that a vehicle that was built for the service, comfort and welfare of people becomes a tool for unintentional killing, burdening families with grief for many years, and leaving permanent physical disabilities that also increase the suffering.

The annual traffic accident reports issued by the Public Security Directorate provide “terrifying” information about traffic accidents, as about one million traffic accidents occurred between 2017 and 2022, and more than 90 percent of their causes are errors and violations of the law by drivers in the absence of a deterrent penalty. Increasing penalties and amending the traffic law has become an urgent demand to stop these tragedies in the streets and protect people in them.

The Jordanian News Agency (Petra) went back to the Public Security Directorate’s reports for the last six years, and read its numbers, and it was found that 915,114 traffic accidents occurred, resulting in 3,511 deaths, and 5,408 serious injuries, and caused Jordan to lose an amount of money, amounting to about two billion dinars.

These reports showed that the annual number of accidents is close to each other, and even the year in which the closures occurred due to the emerging Corona virus, the number did not decrease much. In 2019, there were 161,511 accidents, and the number decreased to 122,970 accidents in 2020 despite the closures and the decrease in vehicle movement. The number rose again in 2021 and was similar to the number in 2019, when the number of accidents reached 160,600 accidents, while 169,409 accidents occurred. In the past year 2022, to be the highest in the last six years.
The number of accidents in these years indicates that the penalties contained in the valid traffic law did not succeed in reducing the number of accidents, but rather approached the same number of them annually, and the costs on the state, society and the family became very high.

Engineer Shadi tells (Petra) the story of his wife being run over by a driver, who fell into a coma for more than 3 months, then began her painful treatment journey for her and him, during which he paid more than 150,000 dinars after the driver and his family were unable to complete the treatment and sums of money Insurance was limited, and even after the passage of time after that accident, she never recovered, as her injuries were very severe, indicating that this accident changed his wife’s life into great pain, and he stood in front of him with much helplessness to alleviate her.

Public Security figures showed that during the first five months of the current year 2023, 223 people died due to traffic accidents, and that 98 percent of the causes of these accidents are “humans,” and 45,000 drivers crossed a red light, and this is what the traffic control was able to record, while reflecting 23 A thousand drivers drove on public roads, in addition to the registration of one thousand and 700 reckless driving violations for two drivers, and 161 driving licenses were confiscated, until the middle of last May.
Public Security reports indicated that the youth segment is the most vulnerable to accidents, and during the past year 2022, 46 percent of the dead and injured were young people and in the age group between 18-35 years.

For her part, the psychological and family counselor and human development expert, Dr. Hanan Al-Omari, said that there are people who boast of breaking the laws because this makes them feel the “fahlwa” that they enjoy. Spirit and matter.
She pointed out the importance of spreading the culture of the road in various professional sectors, schools and universities so that leadership ethics becomes the prevailing culture.
And she stressed that society must change the way it accepts traffic violations so that it becomes very disapproving, so a person who is proud of having covered the distance from Aqaba to Amman by 3 hours should not be promoted because his speed reached 180 kilometers per hour.

She pointed out that vehicles in all their forms are only a means of transportation to facilitate people’s lives, an investment of time and effort, but on the condition that civilized behaviors are investigated to reach their desired destination safely.
She pointed out that the vehicle is subject, first and foremost, to an ethical system. If it is hacked, the car loses its pleasure and the purpose for which it was made, and then becomes a psychological pressure factor for the majority of people as a result of wrong behaviors that are represented by legal and moral transgressions, attributing most of them to social, psychological and environmental reasons.

She explained that what the individual learns from his environment and the social and economic pressures are discharged in one way or another while driving the vehicle, stressing the importance of the psychological factor that produces reckless drivers.
She pointed out that there are others who believe that driving a vehicle is competitive and feel euphoria when overtaking the largest number of cars, not caring about the consequences of this overtaking.
And she indicated that harsher penalties and amending the law have a positive effect on a group of drivers, but work must also be on developing society culturally and self-restraint so that wearing a seat belt becomes a habit and not using the phone as well and avoiding cutting the light signal and reckless driving and reckless driving. The triple error mission is to create a safe driving environment.

— (Petra)