Campaign begins for safer roads in Oman

Country with the highest number of accidents in Gulf region seeks to create awareness targeting young drivers

MUSCAT // Ravi Thanghavelu’s father died instantly when a four- wheel drive vehicle ploughed through a road divider at 120 kilometres an hour and crashed into their saloon car in Muscat.

When Ravi woke up in hospital a day later, the 27-year-old was told by a doctor that he “was lucky to be alive” although his legs and an arm were broken.

His father, 62, who was sitting in the passenger seat, did not survive last October’s accident.

There were 692 road deaths in Oman last year, about 8 per cent more than a year earlier, according to the Royal Oman Police.

As part of the 33rd GCC Traffic Week, Oman launched a nationwide road safety campaign on March 11.

“I was driving the car and saw the four-wheel losing control at the bend and the next thing ... I just blacked out and woke up a day later in hospital,” Mr Thanghavelu said.

Police said the driver of the other vehicle was an 18-year-old who had received his driving licence only 11 days earlier. He survived the crash but his 21year old brother died.

Oman has the largest number of road accidents in the Gulf region.

According to statistics at the GCC secretariat information office based in Muscat, Oman leads the way with 4,721 accidents, followed by Saudi Arabia with 4,609 and Qatar was third with 4,322 last year.

The number of accidents in Oman was 8.89 per 100,000 people last year compared with 8.71 per 100,000 people in 2015, according to Oman Royal Police.

“We are leading the way in terms of the highest number of road accidents in the GCC countries,” said Capt Kareem Alawi, the police officer on duty at one of the many campaign stations around the country.

“Most drivers involved in the accidents are young, in their twenties. They cause about 72 per cent of all accidents. They just drive too fast.”

Police this week will use video from fatal accidents and distribute leaflets and speeches in a week-long campaign at every major shopping mall in the country. More than 400 men and women traffic police officers will be visiting educational institutions to promote road safety as part of the campaign.

Last year, three Emirati women and a 12-year-old boy from the same family as well as their Asian driver were killed when the SUV they were travelling in collided with a lorry on the motorway linking Muscat with Salalah, according to local media reports.

In the past three years, Oman has introduced a number of steps to reduce fatalities and injuries on roads.

The measures include raising the minimum legal driving age from 17 to 18, imposing a fine of 500 Omani rials (Dh4,770) if a driver jumps a red light, a twoday jail sentence for driving on the hard shoulder and a sixmonth driving ban for getting more than seven speeding tickets in a year. Insurance companies paid out 123 million rials for 4,721 accidents last year – about 11 per cent more than 2015, statistics from the ministry of commerce show. “That kind of money puts a lot of financial pressure on the insurance companies. It takes away their profits just because some drivers are too careless on the road,” said Juma Al Khawari, manager of Al Seeb Insurance Company.