Saudi Arabia to deport reckless drivers

Foreigners convicted of repeated motoring offences in Saudi Arabia could be deported under a new driving code to be applied soon. According to local Arabic daily Al Madina, driving licences in Saudi Arabia will be endorsed with penalty points for each offence. A driver will not be allowed to sit behind the steering wheel if he has 18 penalty points endorsed in one Hijri year — 354 days, based on the lunar calendar. A driver who receives 24 penalty points within one year will have his driving licence suspended for three months and he will be sent to prison for one to two weeks.However, if he gets another 24 penalty points in the same year, he will be suspended for six months and, in the case of a third 24-point penalty, he will have his licence revoked. Any foreigner who gets 18 penalty points three times during his presence in the Saudi kingdom will have his residency cancelled and will be deported for putting people’s lives at risk, the daily said. The report did not mention the scale for the allocated penalty points, but it is expected to be related to the severity of the offence. The new driving code will seek to encourage positive driving by dropping all previous penalty points if a driver spends one year without any offence. Everybody with a valid Saudi driving licence will be credited with two points for safe driving if he has no offence during one Hijri year. According to an AP July 2011 report, 27,635 of the 393,000 foreigners deported by the US in the fiscal year that ended on September 30, had been arrested for drunken driving. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, an additional 13,028 were deported after being arrested on less serious traffic law violations.from gulf news.