Pedestrians comprise one third of accident fatalities

Pedestrians constitute one third of fatalities in road traffic accidents (RTAs) in Qatar according to statistics from the Qatar Centre for Transport and Traffic Safety under the College of Engineering at Qatar University. Local Arabic daily 'Arrayah' reported that the study revealed that the impact of the strength of a crash in killing a pedestrian is 5% when the vehicle is under 50km/h, and 29% at 50km/h, but jumps to 76% at a speed of 70km/h and 96% at 90km/h. Hence the most important safety measures for pedestrians is to abide by the pavements and the dedicated crossing for them, besides ensuring there is no approaching vehicle from either side and maintaining eye contact with motorists during crossing whenever possible. Motorists ought to reduce speed and give priority to the pedestrians on the roads, and give extra care when approaching pedestrian crossings, the study suggested. The centre was established in collaboration with the National Traffic Safety Committee to be a general platform for collecting and publishing research studies regarding road safety in Qatar.    

As seen on GulfTimes  Image Credits GulfTimes