DOHA: The Traffic Department has asked driving schools to familiarise the trainees with different types of cars, including four wheelers, a senior official has disclosed.
Most driving schools have been using small saloon cars to train people seeking a driver’s licence. Brigadier Mohammed Saad Al Kharji, Director of the Traffic Department said that these schools have been asked to use other types of cars as well so that a newly licensed driver should not have difficulty in driving a bigger car.
Sources from some driving schools said yesterday that they have started implementing this new directive. “We are now using four wheelers, besides the small saloon cars in training, especially for housemaids,” said a senior official of a driving school. Housemaids mostly seek a driver’s licence for the purpose of driving cars owned by their employers.
Al Kharji also said that primary indicators about death rate in road accidents in Qatar in 2014 shows a decline compared to 2013. The data will be released soon, he added.
The official said that pedestrian casualties in the country are higher compared to the number of drivers being killed in road accidents. To address this issue, the department in collaboration with the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) is working to build a number of pedestrian bridges and tunnels across the city.
Speaking to the Qatar News Agency (QNA) on the sidelines of a seminar on traffic safety at the Qatar University, Al Kharji said, “Currently we lack bridges and tunnels for pedestrians and this is a problem we have been facing. This is one of the factors that makes pedestrian casualties higher compared to the number of drivers (dying in road accidents.)”
On preventing trucks entering Doha, the official said a total ban is not possible especially when mega projects are being implemented in the country. However, the new truck route opened recently has reduced the number of trucks entering the city.
The official explained that a vehicle can be impounded for three types of violations — overtaking from right, parking in places designated for people with disabilities and double parking.
Brigadier Mohammed Al Malki, Secretary of the National Traffic Safety Committee, said that 35 percent of the work plan in the five-year national traffic safety strategy was implemented in one-and-a-half years.
“There is regular assessment every three months to check the progress in implementation of the strategy and find out the difficulties which may hinder some of the plans and suggest solutions,” he said.
The strategy includes 220 work plans and over 13 governmental agencies are involved in its implementation. The aim is to reduce the death rate in traffic accidents to six for every 100,000 people in five years. The death rate in 2013 was nine for every 100,000 and the 2014 results will show a further decline, he added.
He said the committee is working to set up a joint database for traffic accidents under the Ministry of Interior and data will be available for all government agencies concerned.