By the Pen

Jalajil Ambush Between Transport and Municipalities

Some jurisdictions overlap between ministries, and there is no doubt that the public interest is prioritized and cooperation is achieved for it because the common good is everyone's goal. Sometimes one party sees the matter from its own perspective, its regulations, and its authorities that differ from the other party. There is no better example to explain what we mean. In the city of Jalajil in the Sudair region, specifically at the entrance to the city from the highway, there is a gas station on the right side of the road frequented by large trucks (semi-trailers). They exit the station and return to the highway via a U-turn opening, causing them to cut across vehicles entering the city, resulting in collisions. A vehicle entering at speed cannot anticipate a truck swerving from far right to far left, so the small vehicle ends up under the truck. This sudden ambush has led to fatal accidents in the first half of this year 2026, causing three deaths, one of which was a young man no older than 19 years.

The recurrence of accidents led the municipality of Jalajil to close the U-turn opening near the station and place a farther opening, hoping it would provide enough distance for the truck driver to signal to those behind his intention to change to the left lane and then turn back, and allow the driver behind to notice that there is a truck with a left turn signal and avoid it. However, the road authority in the Ministry of Transport decided to restore the road to its original design. Perhaps the safety department has its justification, such as that the dimensions of the opening give more opportunity for the vehicle coming from behind to accelerate than if the opening were close to the station. But the risk remains, as evidenced by the deaths that occurred in a short period.

Some road safety engineering specialists believe that placing a large roundabout near the station exit would combine the viewpoints of both parties, Transport and Municipalities, and most importantly, it would achieve the means to prevent accidents and protect lives, God willing.

This was just a living and impactful example of what sometimes happens when two parties' perspectives overlap, each seeing what the other does not. I recall that several years ago, an intersection inside the Al-Ta'awun neighborhood in Riyadh between Hail Street and Salama Al-Ansari Street was the cause of an accident almost every morning. Residents demanded speed bumps. The traffic police (who were then suffering from the accidents and attending them) would install speed bumps, and the neighborhood municipality would remove them the next day. The matter ended with the intersection being completely closed, a solution that ended the accidents, thank God.

And since one thing leads to another, we must recall the favor of this esteemed newspaper in modifying the design of entrances to rest areas on the median islands on the Riyadh - Sudair - Qassim road from entrances on the left side of the road, which would have been very dangerous, to entering the median rest areas via an exit on the right side of the road as it is now, after an investigation we conducted at the time titled 'The median rest areas will be an eternal rest, and blood will reach the knees.' Credit goes to the then Minister of Transport, Dr. Nasser Al-Salloum - may God have mercy on him - for approving the change, not insisting on his opinion, and responding to our viewpoint supported by the then Director of Road Safety at the Ministry, Engineer Ali Al-Luhaydan.