Shafeeq Alingal

There is a marked drop in road traffic accidents in Qatar, despite the increase in the number of vehicles and licence holders, it was highlighted during a virtual awareness seminar on Wednesday.

Captain Saud Abdullah al-Hamad, officer of the Traffic Safety Department, noted that accidents came down to 21,7353 in 2019, marking a drop of 2.8% as against 22,3718 in 2018.

“This has happened despite the number of vehicles increasing to 16,55704 in 2019 from 15,87819 in 2018 while the number of licence holders went up to 16,12218 in 2019 from 15,28496 in 2018," he explained.

The number of road traffic accident deaths declined to 154 in 2019 from 168 in 2018. The accident death rate for every 100,000 people in Qatar is 4.4. “Strict implementation of law, awareness and improvement of roads have resulted in good results," he said while urging everyone not to exceed the speed limits.

The event was organised by the Traffic Awareness department at the General Directorate of Traffic in co-ordination with the Public Relations department of the Ministry of Interior.