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The number of registered traffic violations during 2012 increased by 39.2% from the previous year but the number of deaths decreased by 0.5%, it was announced yesterday.
“There were a total of 1,167,346 traffic violations in 2012 as compared to 838,796 in 2011,” Colonel Ibrahim al-Sulaiti, head of the statistics analysing section at the office of the Minister of State for Interior Affairs, said in the presence of Traffic Department director Brigadier Mohamed Saad al-Kharji.
The increase in the number of violations could be due to more vehicles on the roads and an increase in the population. There was an increase of 7.6% in the number of vehicles registered in 2012, as against 2011. The total number of registered vehicles in Qatar stood at 876,039 in 2012 compared to 814,373 in 2011.
In 2012, a total of 44 Qataris died due to traffic accidents, constituting 21.6% of the 204 deaths (184 males and 20 females). The total road traffic fatalities decreased 10.2% from that of 2011.
Arab expatriates accounted for 19.6% of the traffic accident deaths during 2012 whereas 58.8% were other expatriates. Col al-Sulaiti pointed out that 71.6% of the total number of traffic deaths last year were young people aged 18-39 years old.
“This is usually connected to the number of years of driving experience the motorist has; the less the number, the more the likelihood of fatal accidents,” he observed.
Out of the total road traffic fatalities, 72 were drivers (35.3% of the total number), 76 passengers (37.3%) and 56 pedestrians (27.4%).
Indian expatriates constituted the highest percentage of pedestrian deaths in 2012 at 28.6% followed by the Nepalese (21.4%). Pedestrian deaths decreased by 13.5% from 2009 despite the increasing number of the population and vehicles.
“Most of the pedestrian deaths happened at the Industrial Area, Al-Shamal and Al-Wakrah due to the density of labour population and because most roads lack pedestrian flyovers or underpasses,” Col al-Sulaiti said. He explained that the number of passenger deaths had increased due to negligence of safety procedures, most importantly wearing the seat belt.
In 2012, there were 4,218 road accidents which caused injuries, a 11.6% increase from the previous year. Accidents causing severe injuries amounted to 605, a 3.2% increase from 2011.
Col al-Sulaiti observed that 45.8% of the accidents causing injuries and 52% of the road accident deaths were due to negligence and aggressive driving.
“Generally, the overall traffic performance had improved in 2012 as the number of severe accidents decreased by 9.5% from previous year,” the official stated. Further, the overall rate of deaths due to traffic accidents constituted 17.2% of the total deaths in the country in 2012 while it was 18% in 2011 and 28% in 2006.
Speeding violations captured by radars at a speed of over 41km from the maximum allowed amounted to 36,652 in 2012 while it was only 21,564 in 2011.
Col al-Sulaiti pointed out that the Abu-Samra-Mebairak-Abu-Nkhla road recorded the highest number of speeding violations with 55,791 (35.9% of overall speed violations) in 2012 and 98,789 (47.9%) in 2011.
Communication ‘challenges’
The Traffic Department is facing “major challenges” in reaching out to the different communities in Qatar, which hosts nearly 180 different nationalities, director Brigadier Mohamed Saad al-Kharji said yesterday. “People have different cultures and languages and some of them do not know Arabic or English and we have to address them in their local languages. We do our best to instruct at least the heads of communities and raise their traffic awareness and eventually they would pass it on to their compatriots,” he explained. Page 32