Ninety-eight percent of accidents in Jordan are due to human error, said the director of the Traffic Institute, Basem Al Kharabsheh, on Tuesday.

The main cause of accidents is failure to abide by traffic rules and committing violations such as speeding, running a red light, sudden change of lanes, lack of safety distance between vehicles, and using mobile phones.

Traffic accidents costs the Kingdom an estimated JD 324 million, which is a huge burden on the state’s treasury, he added. The Public Security Directorate (PSD) worked in cooperation with partners in the governmental and private sector at a local and international level, to conduct research and develop strategies to reduce traffic accidents.

Over the past five years, the PSD contributed to reducing the number of accidents —a total of 161,511 accidents were reported in 2019, resulting in 643 deaths and 108,57 injuries, said Kharabsheh.

He said the media should raise awareness among citizens to reduce traffic accidents and partner with universities to offer courses for students.

The PSD launched an initiative that looks at all the causes of accidents in general to work on reducing similar incidents in the future.