Qatar has joined the world to mark the Global Road Safety Week. The General Directorate of Traffic conducted an awareness exhibition and the Ministry of Public Health, Qatar Red Crescent and Hamad Medical Corporation took part in the event to highlight their efforts and awareness messages related to the road safety and the dangers of road accidents. This year the theme was “Leadership for Road Safety”.
The country is spearheading the awareness campaign on road safety for years now. and the results have started showing. The number of deaths in traffic accidents in 2018 declined to 168 in Qatar, figuring 4.9 per every 100,000 persons, while in 2017 a total of 177 deaths occurred at a rate of 5.4 per 100,000 persons.
Qatar’s average of 4.9 road accident deaths per 100,000 persons was a remarkable achievement as it is far below the global average. In 2008, 12 deaths per 100,000 people were recorded, which means a steady decline in the mortality rate between 2008 and 2018 by 59.2 percent. The traffic accidents have decreased by 2.2% in February 2019 when compared to January this year.
The statistics should be seen in the context that the global average was 17.4 deaths per 100,000 persons, 9.2 per 100,000 persons in high-income countries, 9.3 in European countries and 24.1 deaths in low-income countries. The traffic statistics 2018 showed remarkable progress regarding reduction in the number of traffic accidents, deaths and traffic injuries.
Qatar’s improvement in the road safety is also a great achievement when the number of vehicles increased by 4.3 percent in 2018 and driving licences by six percent in comparison with 2017. Despite this growth, the number of accidents with serious injuries declined by 5.8 percent in 2018 and death due to accidents declined by 3.1 percent.
It is also clear that Qatar is a leader in the field of traffic safety management in the Middle East and the third world countries as the rate of arrival of ambulances to accident sites in Doha is seven minutes while it is eight minutes for outside Doha, in 91 percent of cases.
Various methods have implemented by the authorities to reduce the road accidents, while Qatar has adopted and implementing the National Road Safety Strategy. The authorities are also holding various awareness seminars and workshops to educate public about the safe driving.
Several recommendations regarding traffic safety were also discussed and implemented at various levels. Over 1.5 billion records of data, coming from major road segments in Qatar, were collected and taken into consideration while implementing the safety system.
As Minister of Public Health H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari said: “Qatar is committed to work towards ensuring members of the community and especially young children are as safe as possible on Qatar’s roads. Child passenger safety is an essential element of Decade of Action (2011-2020) global plan for road safety and we are proud that Qatar is leading the way with this unique and lifesaving service.”
