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The initiative works with communities to reduce the unacceptable high mortality and injury rates associated with road traffic collisions as well to reduce the impact on health, community, and economic

This is being pursued through excellence in promoting and implementing effective training, management, and governance of road traffic safety across Saudi Arabia.

The Road Traffic Safety initiative-RTSI was launched by Abdul Latif Jameel in collaboration with Toyota Motor Corporation Japan in 2014, later coming under the umbrella of Community Jameel Initiatives.

Community Jameel’s aim is to help communities transform themselves and prevent problems at the source. RTSI’s programme plays a vital role, strategically targeting key areas that support and enable effective management for road traffic safety systems.

These include engineering, enforcement, emergency response, education and training. The areas of focus are consistent with international best practice, as well as World Health Organisation and United Nations recommendations that specifically target the reduction of deaths from road traffic collisions.

Based on these recommendations, the RTSI’s remit is to create strategic partnerships with RTS stakeholders from public and private sectors to enable change in road user’s behaviour and the way road traffic safety is managed holistically.

As part of the annual Gulf Traffic Week, the RTSI will be organising the ‘Your Belt, Your Safety’ campaign, encouraging Saudi and residents to promote the use of seatbelt and highlight the impact of not buckling up. A road traffic safety exhibition will be held in Red Sea Mall featuring characters from ‘Open Sesame’, with several edutainment activities aiming to engage all members of families and promote road traffic safety awareness

Hassan Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel, President of Community Jameel Saudi Arabia and Head of Abdul Latif Jameel’s Road Traffic Safety Committee-RTSC, stressed the importance of educating young people in road traffic safety, saying: “Traffic safety awareness campaigns are effective in motivating Saudi road users and supporting government efforts in raising public awareness and enabling the local institutions to collaborate across different fields.

“The RTSI focus on equipping children young people as future road users with necessary skills and knowledge to keep them safe. We strongly believe in promoting sustainable road traffic safety awareness as a continuation of the education process. Introducing programmes in curricular and extracurricular capacities consolidates our message and promotes improved attitudes to safety at an early age, which we believe can help to protect people in their future lives.”

Abdul Latif Jameel Centre for Continuing Education, Abdul Latif Jameel Hospital, and a number of other Abdul Latif Jameel’s companies and departments will also participate in awareness activities as part of Gulf Traffic Week. They aim to highlight issues related to vehicle safety, health and economic impacts resulting from road collisions. A seatbelt simulator will demonstrate the impact of collisions at low speed and encourage seatbelt usage by drivers and riders for all journeys no matter the distance or duration.

Abdul Latif Jameel is also using its sponsorship of the Saudi domestic football league to promote road traffic safety at football games nationwide. Collaborating with Jeddah Traffic Department, the 20th round of the Abdul Latif Jameel League has been named with the slogan ‘Buckle Up Round’ to raise awareness of the importance of wearing seatbelts. Road traffic safety activities will be held before and after the match between Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal.

Dr. Osama Al Kurdi, Director of the Road Safety initiative commented that: “Through strategically targeted activities and events, RTSI plays a key role in instituting strategic partnerships with concerned public and private agencies involved in managing road traffic safety. Through these strategic partnerships, road traffic safety campaigns aspire to the highest values and play a significant role in positively affecting road users’ attitudes and behaviour.