Big drop in road accident deaths

The decline in fatalities is due to the stupendous efforts of the Royal Oman Police

MUSCAT: The number of fatalities due to road accidents have dropped by 50 per cent in the five past years, Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al Sa’eedi, Oman’s Minister of Health, said. According to the minister, the decline in fatalities is due to the stupendous efforts of the Royal Oman Police (ROP).

In an interview with Oman TV, he said: “In the past five years, the number of fatalities due to road accidents in the Sultanate was 31 out of a total of 1,000 death in the country, which was very high.”

He added: “Because of ROP’s efforts to bring down the number of road accidents — by introducing new laws and regulations and the cooperation of both citizens and residents — the number of fatalities went down to 31 fatalities of the total 1,000 deaths in the country.”

Earlier this year, Brigadier Mohammed Al Rawas, director general of the Traffic Department at ROP, said that the number of accidents reduced by 67 per cent, injuries by 33 per cent, and deaths by 52 per cent.

Traffic accidents

Al Rawas said, “Traffic accidents resulting from speed accounted for more than 70 per cent of total accidents. Awareness and motorists abiding by speed limits led to a reduction in the number of accidents. Speed radars also contributed to the decline in the number of accidents.”

With regard to the amendment in the executive regulation traffic panel, he clarified that the reduction of accidents required a package of measures, including improvement of the road environment, awareness, and the development of laws.

He added, “The traffic law and its executive regulations came as a result of a study in which everyone participated, making it suitable to make the roads safer and traffic flow smoother for everyone.”

He pointed out that everyone witnessed the inauguration of the traffic service stations in most of the Sultanate’s wilayats, adding, “Everyone can obtain these services without constraints or hardships for long distances, saving time, effort and money, and ensuring easy access to services.”

According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information, traffic accidents in June 2019 fell by 17.3 per cent compared to June 2018.

There were 210 accidents in June, 180 accidents in May, and 163 accidents in April.

Some 2,802 accidents occurred on the Sultanate’s roads in 2018, down from 3,845 accidents in 2017. Some 637 deaths occurred in 2018, compared to 640 in 2017.

As many as 396 Omanis and 239 expats lost their lives on the Sultanate’s roads in 2018.