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Raising awareness is key
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E Brig. Mohammed Saad Al-Kharji says the age of those who die in traffic accidents ranges from 18 to 35. He says this indicates a deficient traffic culture and reckless driving among this age group. He adds that there are 180 different nationalities living in Qatar, a major cause of difficulty in spreading traffic awareness due to the language barrier, especially as some people know neither Arabic nor English. This is why the Traffic Department has started to meet with the heads of various communities to give them special awareness guidelines on traffic so that they can educate their communities in their own languages, adding that these meetings are going to be held periodically. He expanded further on the growing challenges facing the Traffic Department with Qatar Today. Which violations are most responsible for traffic accidents? Speeding is biggest cause of accidents, whether on highways or on secondary roads. All necessary measures are being taken to control the phenomenon of excessive speed. More radars are being posted on highways; the distance between two radars is being reduced to 2 km from 4 km; and those caught driving at double the speed limit are immediately charged with criminal offences. Explain the violation of overtaking from the right side, and the radars being used to check this violation. Work is under way to install radars to detect overtaking from the right, and they have been tested already in some of Doha’s streets. Overtaking from the right, besides being an obvious violation of the traffic law, is highly threatening to traffic safety. This aspect has a moral side, too, as motorists should respect the rights of others to the road and refrain from encroaching on this right. What about the road safety of pedestrians? Why, in your opinion, have no solutions been found for pedestrian crossings, even on some new streets?
The department is coordinating with the Public Works Authority (Ashgal) to build tunnels and flyovers for pedestrian crossings. Moreover, the Traffic Department is in the process of installing radars to check motorists’ violations at pedestrian crossing points. I strongly urge motorists to respect pedestrian Zebra crossing lines and stop, in case there are pedestrians wanting to cross the road. There are real problems on the Industrial Area Road and 22 February Street. There are many accidents and high traffic congestion on these two streets. In your view, what is the cause for this and what are the suitable remedies? The main cause for traffic congestion in the industrial area is the lack of an efficient road infrastructure there, and the roads are dilapidated. Thus the solution is to restructure the whole area and add tunnels and overhead pedestrian crossings. The main reason for traffic difficulties on 22 February Street lies with motorists’ disrespect for the speed limits, especially when some of them drive too slowly on the leftmost side of the road causing their vehicles to be hit from behind.
Global ratio of traffic deaths
Average ratio in western countries
17 per 100,000 persons
10 deaths per 100,000 persons
that the strategy of the Ministry of Interior in the realm of traffic safety from 2011 to 2016 aims at reducing the number of serious traffic accidents from 300 to 250; the average annual traffic mortality rate to 10 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants; the rate of pedestrian deaths to less than 17% of annual traffic-associated deaths as per the global standard; and the ratio of traffic deaths to 10% of the country’s total mortality rate by 2016. Al-Sulaiti said the biggest talking point of the review was the death toll being 7.7% down on the number of expected deaths, which was 221, indicating that improvements in the traffic department’s performance during 2012 led to a decline of 9.5% in the proportion of serious traffic accidents. The traffic report also covered statistics for the number of the injuries caused by traffic accidents, showing a notable increase in the number minor injuries and a decline in the number of major injuries and deaths
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