Driving Enhancement Program
At least one driver is involved in a road accident every second,” an alarming statistic about Saudi Arabia’s driving conditions. According to reports from Rac Foundation, drivers in Saudi Arabia often find themselves involved in serious – and often fatal – accidents due to speeding and overtaking. Today, there are more than 460,000 car crashes in Saudi Arabia every year, of which 5% are the cause of total deaths in the country. Unfortunately, due to poor driving practices, lack of monitoring, and infrastructure, an estimated 1 in 4 people are inevitably involved in a car accident – a high number given the country’s population. Hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries each year has raised great concern over road regulations and the safety of both drivers and passengers.
Due to limited monitoring regulations in Saudi Arabia, the actual cause of an accident can go undetected. Whether it was over-speeding, careless driving, or sharp turns, in some cases, it can be challenging to determine the driver’s behavior that resulted in a dangerous and potentially life-threatening situation. Due to this, it is essential to consider taking measures such as adapting the Driving Enhancement Program.
What is the Driving Enhancement Program (DEP)?
The Driving Enhancement Program is a solution to monitor driver behaviour and a tool that can encourage and reward drivers who – through this program – enhance their driving skills by adhering to road regulations.
Developed by Saferoad and implemented through IoT-connected devices, DEP monitors driver behavior and detects over-speeding, excessive acceleration, harsh braking, fatigued driving, and sharp turns. DEP is developed in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which aims to transform the Kingdom with smart cities and achieve a 3.38 score on the Logistics Performance Index by 2025. As of now, Saferoad is the only provider of DEP in the Kingdom.
Through the DEP dashboard, users can check driver performance and determine issues with their driving style through comprehensive data. They receive “RAG” reports (Red, Amber, Green), which are driver performance indicators, and are provided with a Driving Evaluation Percentage as a marker of their road skills. Using these reports, Saferoad clients can apply training methods that can help improve driver capability on the road, and those whose performance shows enhancement will be rewarded accordingly.
DEP’s mobile application allows clients and drivers to monitor performance in real-time and uses a buzzer for the drivers if their performance on the road starts to veer towards “reckless” to alert them. DEP works with any hardware tracking device, meaning it is easily installed and used.
Benefits of the Driving Enhancement Program:
While the leading benefit of DEP is that it is a valuable tool that helps save lives by decreasing accidents, it is also a solution that aids with enhanced driver behaviour and performance, community awareness, and helps improve the economy.
Road safety is everyone’s responsibility within the community. Therefore measures such as using DEP should to be applied to lower the risk of accidents, the welfare of society, and confidence in building a safe future.
Source Links:
Info Source: https://housegrail.com/saudi-arabia-car-accident-statistics-facts/