Images of mobile use, seatbelt violations available on Metrash 2

Images of motorists not wearing a seatbelt and using mobile phones while driving will be available on the Metrash 2 app, a senior official of the Ministry of Interior (MoI) has said.The new unified radars will clearly capture the two violations, Maj Hamad Ali al-Muhannadi, head of the Radar and Scales Department at the General Directorate of Traffic, told Qatar TV on Wednesday."The radars will differentiate between the seat belt and the cloth even if they are of the same colour. It’s possible to lighten or darken the image and extract a very clear image that the violator can view. We have a mechanism for processing and verifying images of violations," al-Muhannadi said."Using mobile phones or any visual device while driving is a violation and will attract a penalty of QR500 as per Article 54 of the Traffic Law. Not wearing seat belts while driving also attracts a fine of QR500," he said."Mobile phones distract attention while driving. If one browses the mobile phone for three seconds while driving at a speed of 120km/h, it causes an accident. Three seconds means travelling a very long distance while keeping such a speed," he said, adding that the strict monitoring is initiated in order to end use of mobile phones during driving.Avoiding seatbelt is one of the most serious violations because of the harm it causes to the driver himself. "Seatbelt is the first safety line for the driver of the vehicle because it protects (the driver) from the hard parts inside the vehicle in accidents," Maj al-Muhannadi added. The General Directorate of Traffic will begin the soft activation of monitoring the two violations from Sunday (August 27), through automated radar and Tala’a cameras, a week before the official activation date, with the aim of educating road users about these violations.SMS will be sent to alert violators but no fines will be collected before the actual activation date of September 3. The authorities have urged all road users to comply with the traffic law and its executive regulations to preserve lives and property, and contribute to the great efforts made by the various authorities, stressing that traffic safety is a joint responsibility of the society too. Starting next week, MoI will launch a large-scale campaign on its social media accounts and all media outlets to promote traffic safety awareness among all segments of the society.