Even minor accidents often lead to traffic jams on Al Shamal Road. PICTURE: Nasar T K

By Bonnie James/Deputy News Editor


Driving on Al Shamal Road - a vital link of the Qatar Expressway Programme and a major arterial thoroughfare - is proving to be a harrowing experience, motorists say.
“The situation is getting worse with each passing day, during the peak hours and especially on the stretch between Doha International Airport and Gharrafa bridge,” said a motorist who takes the road at least four times a day, six days a week.
A number of minor accidents, most of them caused by reckless driving, particularly tailgating, are seen daily on this stretch, resulting in frequent traffic jams.
“Almost every other day during the past six months I have been stuck on this particular stretch due to the congestion caused by such accidents,” he said.
Given the heavy traffic on Al Shamal Road’s busiest stretch, the Traffic Police and the special road patrolling force Al Fazaa are doing their best by reaching accident spots as quickly as possible, but a disruption of even a couple of minutes is enough to slow down vehicles to a crawling pace for kilometres.
“Considering that you cannot do more than 60km during peak hours on the busiest stretch of Al Shamal Road even if there is no accident, the less said the better about the situation after a collision,” another motorist said. The maximum permissible speed is 100km for this portion of the road.
Incidents of driving and overtaking through the hard shoulders and weaving in and out of lanes without using the indicator lights are increasing, said another motorist who was fortunate enough to escape from an accident yesterday.
“Thank God, I was able to slow down quickly and switch on the hazard lights when a car swerved onto my lane, right in front without any warning,” he said adding his practice of always leaving adequate space between his and the vehicle in front also helped save the day.
A major problem faced by ‘law abiding’ motorists who use Al Shamal Road frequently is that whenever they leave enough space in front, some motorists consider it as an ‘invitation’ to cut into the lane.
“Defensive driving and oodles of patience are the only techniques one could apply while motoring through Al Shamal Road, or for that matter on any road in Doha,” yet another motorist said.
Traffic also gets congested on Al Shamal Road when motorists slow down to ‘take a good look’ of the accident scene, as pointed out by many regulars.
“Many a time, I have been caught in traffic crawling at snail’s pace only to discover after 10 or 20 minutes that the accident was in fact on the other side of the road and motorists on this side were taking their time to get a good view of the scene,” a motorist said.
One sure fire way to reduce accidents on Al Shamal Road would be to enforce a minimum distance between vehicles as it was done on Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai a couple of years ago, suggested a lady resident who does not drive, but travels on the busy road regularly.
“Another option would be ensure visibility of police or Al Fazaa vehicles on the hard shoulders at regular intervals so that it would act as a deterrent to reckless motorists,” she added.
Statistics released recently showed that 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%.
There were a total of 1,167,346 traffic violations in 2012 compared to 838,796 in 2011. 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, 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 in traffic accidents, constituting 21.6% of the 204 deaths (184 males and 20 females). The total number of road traffic fatalities decreased 10.2% from that of 2011. As many as 71.6% of the total number of traffic deaths last year were young people aged 18-39 years old.
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%).
In 2012, there were 4,218 road accidents which caused injuries, an 11.6% increase from the previous year. Accidents causing severe injuries numbered 605, a 3.2% increase from 2011.
About 45.8% of the accidents causing injuries and 52% of the road accident deaths were due to negligence and aggressive driving.
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.