Jordan Road Safety: Why Driving Standards Need Urgent Attention

I have driven in a lot of places. Over the years, I have driven motorbikes, cars, tractors, SUVs, armoured vehicles and large articulated trucks across the United States, throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia. I have driven professionally, driven in difficult environments and spent much of my working life assessing risk.

After several years of driving in Jordan, I can say honestly that I have never encountered driving standards as consistently poor as those I experience on Jordan’s roads. That is a personal assessment, not a statistical ranking of countries. But the official figures show that the underlying road safety problem is very real.

In 2025, Jordan recorded 187,213 road traffic accidents. Of those, 11,680 involved injuries or fatalities, with 510 people killed and 17,146 injured. The previous year was worse still, with 543 deaths and more than 18,000 injuries. Perhaps the most important statistic is that the Higher Population Council reported that 97.1% of casualty producing road accidents in 2024 were attributed to human error. Road conditions and vehicle defects accounted for only a small proportion of the total. This is important because the central issue is not simply whether someone can physically operate a vehicle. It is how they drive, how they perceive risk, how they interact with other road users and whether basic standards of road discipline are being applied consistently.

On Jordan’s roads, abrupt lane changes without indication, tailgating at speed, poor lane discipline, mobile phone use, aggressive merging and vehicles entering major roads without sufficient regard for approaching traffic are everyday occurrences. Roundabouts can become contests over space rather than predictable traffic systems, while overtaking and lane changes are often carried out for very little practical gain. None of these behaviours is unique to Jordan. What stands out is their frequency and the extent to which they appear to have become normalised.

The International Comparison Is Difficult to Ignore

One of the most revealing ways to compare road safety performance is to look at road deaths relative to the number of registered vehicles. Using comparable World Health Organization data, Jordan recorded an estimated 86 road deaths for every 100,000 registered vehicles. The equivalent figure was approximately 4 in the United Kingdom, 5 in Germany, 14 in the United Arab Emirates and 45 in Saudi Arabia. That means Jordan’s estimated road fatality rate relative to the size of its vehicle fleet was more than twenty times that of the United Kingdom, around eighteen times that of Germany and approximately six times that of the UAE.

No single statistic can fully describe the quality of driving in a country, and international comparisons always require some caution. But when this data is considered alongside the fact that the overwhelming majority of serious crashes in Jordan are attributed to human error, it becomes difficult to argue that driver behaviour is anything other than a major road safety issue.

The Problem Starts Before a Licence Is Issued

There is another question that deserves much more attention and that is what standard of driving is actually being taught? It is not uncommon to observe learner vehicles and driving instructors themselves failing to demonstrate what should be basic road discipline. Poor lane positioning, limited use of indicators, weak observation, abrupt manoeuvring and questionable road positioning are often seen during the learning process itself.

If instructors are not consistently demonstrating good observation, signalling, lane discipline, following distances and defensive driving, it is difficult to expect new drivers to emerge with those behaviours firmly embedded. Driving instruction should be about much more than teaching someone how to move a vehicle, complete a manoeuvre and pass a test. It should teach risk management behind the wheel.

A competent driver needs to understand anticipation, braking distance, visibility, hazard perception, space management and the consequences of forcing other road users to compensate for poor decisions. These are not advanced techniques. They are the fundamentals of safe driving. That raises a difficult but legitimate question: how many people currently holding a driving licence are genuinely fit to be driving?

A driving licence demonstrates legal permission to operate a vehicle. It does not necessarily demonstrate competence. If unsafe behaviour is widespread, repeatedly observed and responsible for the overwhelming majority of serious collisions, then it is reasonable to ask whether driver training, testing and ongoing standards are sufficiently demanding.

Road Safety Is an Operational Risk

For businesses operating in Jordan, road risk should also be treated as an operational issue rather than a routine administrative one. Companies often invest heavily in security assessments, travel policies, insurance and emergency procedures while allowing employees or contracted drivers onto the road with little assessment of how they actually drive.

A driving licence should not automatically be treated as proof of competence. Organisations using professional drivers should consider practical assessments, defensive drivier training, incident monitoring and periodic reassessment. Near misses should also be recorded and reviewed rather than ignored simply because nobody was injured.

The same applies to international travellers. Visitors choosing to drive in Jordan should understand that the road environment can require heightened situational awareness. Maintaining greater following distances, anticipating unexpected lane changes and never assuming another road user has seen you are basic precautions.

Better Driving Requires Better Standards

Jordan has made progress in reducing road fatalities, and that should be recognised. But the numbers remain too high, and the data continues to point overwhelmingly towards human behaviour as the central problem. That also means there is an opportunity. Road infrastructure takes years to improve and requires substantial investment. Driving behaviour can change much faster through better training, stronger testing, more consistent enforcement and greater personal responsibility.

There is also a case for looking again at instructor standards, practical driving assessments and whether existing licensing processes place enough emphasis on hazard perception and defensive driving.

After driving across much of the world, I remain more cautious behind the wheel in Jordan than almost anywhere else. The more important question is why so many road users have come to accept the conditions that make that necessary.

James Carr

CEO

Stratum Gloabl Risk