THE EXTENT OF ILLEGAL OVERTAKING IN THE EASTERN PROVINCE OF SAUDI ARABIA

Illegal overtaking is a major contributor to traffic accidents in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is the second most frequent cause of traffic accidents after speeding, and responsible for 10% of all traffic accidents in the year 2001. This paper evaluates the extent of illegal overtaking in the study area and examines the effect of time and alignment on its frequency. The study took place in the eastern part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and covered tangent sections and horizontal curves during off-peak, peak, and night-time periods. It was concluded that overtaking violations in the study area were statistically influenced by alignment and traffic volume. Overtaking along tangent sections was statistically more than that on horizontal curves. The number of overtaking vehicles in a given direction was found to proportionally increase with the traffic volume in the same direction and decrease with the traffic volume in the opposite direction. On average, the overtaking violations constituted 2.1% of the observed traffic volume (in both directions) during 98 hours of data collection in the study area