By Noimot Olayiwola/Staff Reporter
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Shaaban (right) with other officials at the press conference |
The centre, which will be formally inaugurated in September and kick start its research activities then, is a joint effort between the Industrial and Civil Engineering Departments at the QU’s College of Engineering.
“Because Qatar has one of the highest rates for road traffic trauma in the region and around the world, the country has considered the issue of road safety study as a top priority and it is constantly looking for different ways to generate relevant information in that regard,” Civil Engineering Department assistant professor Khaled Shaaban said at a press conference yesterday.
Last year, 205 people died due to road traffic accidents, constituting 15% of total deaths in 2011, he said.
“There are three factors in road traffic accidents – the driver, the vehicle, and the environment. The last factor, including adverse weather conditions (rain, fire, wind and sand storm), which are present in Qatar, still need to be researched. That is one of the goals of the research team here,” Shaaban stated.
He said that the centre will gather expertise from different agencies such as the Ministry of Interior (MoI), the Traffic Department and the Hamad Medical Corporation in its efforts to find solutions to some of the problems the country is facing due to traffic accidents.
Shaaban mentioned that a national safety committee has been formed by the MoI, and what is called the “safety contract” has been signed with the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) in order to develop road safety strategies to be implemented over the next nine years as well as to put together a five-year national road safety action plan.
“It is our hope that after conducting research into some of the causes of road traffic accidents in Qatar, the centre will make use of this multi-disciplinary approach to formulate a list of recommendations as to what should be done to reduce road traffic accidents and deaths in the country,” he explained.
Shaaban mentioned that the College of Engineering was already carrying out a number of research studies and projects concerning road safety within the campus.
“We are presently conducting research on the use of seatbelts among the students because we have discovered that a high percentage of students (around 33%) have been involved in road accidents and those involved in those accidents are aged below 25 years,” he said.
He added that the focus of the research was to find out the reasons for not wearing seatbelts and other causes of accidents among the target group as well as to get the actual percentage of students who wear seatbelts while driving.
The results of the research are expected by September or October, he mentioned.
Also present at the press conference were College of Engineering dean Mazen Hassna, QU Research and Graduate Studies associate dean Abdel Magid Hamouda and Mechanical and Industrial Section professor Dr Khalifa Nasser al-Khalifa.