Qatar residents continued to drive badly in 2012, with the number of accidents resulting in injury jumping nearly 12 percent, according to new figures released by the Traffic Department today.

Nearly 1.2 million traffic violations were issued last year, a 39 percent jump from the previous year, the Ministry of Interior said on Twitter. 

But the surge in punishments don’t appear to have deterred raging roadsters, as Qatar saw some 4,218 accidents resulting in injuries last year, compared to 3,780 in 2011. The number of severe injuries increased some 3.2 percent, while the number of people killed fell half a percent.

Also on the rise: the number of vehicles on Qatar’s congested roads. Some 61,666 more vehicles were added to the streets last year, an increase of 7.6 percent from 2011. That brings the total number of vehicles up to 879,039 – more than 200,000 more cars than in 2010.

Population swells

Meanwhile, new Qatar Statistics Authority figures show that Qatar’s population, now past 1.9 million people, is continuing to grow at a much faster rate than originally estimated – last year increasing 7 percent instead of the 2 percent forecasted by the National Development Strategy.

The ensuing increase in vehicles on Qatar’s roads, in addition to road closures due to construction and poor urban planning, are the key reasons behind traffic jams here, some 4,300 residents said in a recent MOI survey.

The best way to tackle those problems is to increase police presence and enforcement on the roads and teach people the basics of traffic awareness and driving culture, residents added.

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by Hani Arif