Brig Gen Mohamed Saad Al Kharji, Director-General Traffic Directorate, cutting the ribbon with Gen, Mohamed Al-Malki (centre) Secretary-General of NTSC, at the opening of the World Day of Remembrance of Road Traffic Victims exhibition at the headquarters
The five-year National Traffic Safety Strategy (2017-2022) will focus on improving the system for managing and investigating accidents, upgrading traffic patrol and issuance of driving licences and on evaluation of various traffic sections based on geographical areas, a senior official said yesterday.
The General Directorate of Traffic has achieved 80 percent of the targets set by the current National Traffic Safety Strategy, said the official. Only 33 out of a total of 89 plans under the strategy remain unaccomplished and are expected to be completed by next year.
“The strategy includes response after accidents, awareness, road engineering and investigating accidents among others and by next year we will complete it and then start working on the next strategy for 2017-2022”, said Director General of the Traffic Department, Brig Muhammad Saad Al Kharji .
He was addressing a function to mark the World Day for Remembrance of Road Traffic Victims at the Traffic Directorate headquarters yesterday.
Several government entities and institutions participated in the event held under the slogan "response after accidents, medical care, investigation, and justice". “Today we commemorate the millions of victims and what caused pain to their families and friends. We also commemorate the victims from the young age. Due to large number of accidents, countries face more than 7 percent loss in their Gross Domestic Product," Al Kharji said.
As a result of the national strategy mortality rate in accidents reduced to 7.5 for every 100,000 population last year.
Among the most important current projects of the Directorate are developing traffic accidents information system, developing the laws and awareness system and enhancing coordination between different authorities on traffic-related issue, he added. “We want to reduce the number of deaths from 227 cases last year to 130 cases by 2022, the number of major injuries to 300, and the number of annual deaths from 14 cases to 6 cases per every 100,000 people by 2022."
Brig. Mohammed Abdullah Al Maliki, Secretary-General, National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC) stressed the cooperation between authorities and the public saying it is necessary to curb road accidents. “The UN’s plan for the decade 2011-2020 which related to traffic safety aims to reduce the number of traffic accidents victims by 50 percent by 2022, and among the important issues the UN has focused on is to develop the traffic police work, curb speeding, improve pedestrians services, and to develop the road designs” he added. Prof Dr Kim Jraiw, Manager, NTSC, said the UN is monitoring the countries’ progress and issuing regular reports. "Qatar is leading by example due to its national strategy on traffic safety."
He further said: "For providing an ambulance and response after accident, the Ministry of Public Health has done great jobs. It has been part of traffic strategy and the Ministry of Public Health has completed 7 out of 9 projects assigned to it regarding road safety."
An exhibition was held on the sidelines of the event to raise awareness on traffic safety. Two victims of traffic accidents attended the event and talked about their experience.
