Qatar motorists involved in accidents may no longer need to go to the Traffic Department to collect paperwork for their insurers, following an announcement from the Ministry of Interior (MOI) about a new, paperless electronic reporting system.
In a statement, MOI said it had signed an agreement with the heads of car insurers in Qatar, so that reports of all accidents involving damage to cars would be sent directly from police to the insurance companies.
The ministry did not specify when these system would be in place.
But once the process is implemented, officers on the scene of an accident would be required to electronically log all the details, including an incident reference number, the registration numbers of the cars involved and details of the damage incurred.
This report would be sent directly to the insurers used by the relevant driver, while a text message with the incident number and details of the insurer would be forwarded to the motorists involved.
They would then be able to go directly to the insurance company to arrange repairs, according to the MOI.
The agreement was signed this week by Director of Traffic Controlling and Investigation Brig. Abdul Aziz bin Jassim Al Thani, along with heads of they auto insurance companies in Qatar.
The new paperless procedures are designed to cut the amount of time residents have to spend going to the police station, while also speeding up the process of creating the necessary documents, according to Capt. Abdullah Misad Qasim, head of traffic at Al Maamoura station.
However, the new system likely doesn’t refer to minor accidents, where police are usually not called out to the scene. In those cases, drivers often go to the Traffic Department to report the incident themselves.
The MOI also does not mention what would happen if a driver was not insured.
Reducing paperwork
News of this electronic system is the latest move the Traffic Department is taking to improve efficiency and speed up processing of reports, as the number of accidents on Qatar’s roads continues to rise.
In October last year, the MOI announced that traffic police would be issued with tablets, which they would use to directly log reports and photographs at the site of an accident.
With the handheld devices, officers could send those involved a copy of the report while also enabling police called to the scene to immediately check the history of the drivers, including whether they have any violations recorded against them.
The new technology was unveiled by the MOI’s General Directorate of Information System following the Milipol military expo earlier in the month, which saw Qatar confirm QR309 million of deals.
The results of a recent report from the Qatar Road Safety Studies Center (QRSSC) at Qatar University found that the number of traffic accidents here are increasing at a faster rate than the population is growing.
In the 18 years between 1996 and 2013, the total number of all types of road accidents rose by an annual average of 14 percent and showed an overall increase of nearly 560 percent, from 44,077 to 290,829 accidents.
This is faster than the rate of population, which has risen by approximately 340 percent over the same period.
Thoughts?
“The MOI also does not mention what would happen if a driver was not insured.”
I think they have to be arrested on the spot.
There’s what ought to happen, and then there’s what does happen. The last time a friend of mine was hit by an uninsured youth, he was told by the kid that he had to tell the police that it was his (insured) father driving the car.
Yes but he could have insisted that it was the guy or waited for the police to come and it would have been a different story. I just cannot believe they will let someone get away with that. Not having an insurance is not something to be lax with. I am sure if you call the police the guy will be arrested at least for few days.
Really? Why would you rock the boat and risk an extra large serving of “don’t you know who I am… I cancel your visa” – either way you have to visit the police and tell them that it wasn’t your fault and someone else hit you. I personally wouldn’t be bothered trying to match my will against that of the Qatari Traffic Department. I’m 99% sure I know what that outcome will be.
Corruption of the nature I’ve mentioned above is everyday, to the point of being normal and not even viewed as corruption by most people now.
A personal experience. I witnessed an accident involving an underage driver. He hit a building, not another car. He and the passenger swopped places to make it appear that the passenger was driving. I waited for the cops to arrive and gave them my side of the story. They weren’t interested….told me I was causing trouble and I should just leave it.
And they also didn’t specify who will be at fault if the accident is between an Arabic speaker and non Arabic speaker.
Deleting for irrelevance, and subsequent thread.
Shabina the terminator.
Excellent work ma’am.
great development, hopefully more use of electronics will be spurred off the back of this!
Accident histories should also be used to price high risk drivers off the roads
Like the “Three-strikes Law” but for motorists.
I hope this also means the system would be less arbitrary and applicable to all equally. There are many incidents here where the way traffic issues are handled are left to the discretion of some.
Remove the “bad” drivers. Problem solved!
you can lesser the amount of accidents, but you cant completely eliminate that.
and free food for everyone!
A good initiative provided all boxes are ticked. Like: what about no insurance in place? What about minor accidents? Will the motorists be well informed about the report being forwarded to the insurance companies? Means of addressing complaints from Motorists who challenge the ruling?
It should not become a witch hunt for the motorists between the insurance companies & the traffic police.
If all drivers are pulled up using this method, it will certainly be a positive step ahead.
I wonder how they are gonna deal with incorrect reports. The car owner/driver will have to drive back and forth several times between police and insurance company to get the report right.
I once got in to an accident and the whole back of my car is gone; even the chassis bent. The police officer (was on his own world I believe) wrote it as “whole bumper”. The report was in arabic and I couldnt understand it, so I took a picture of the report and sent it to a friend of mine before leaving the station. He spoke to the officer again and made him include the whole list.otherwise I would have ended up in the insurance company to realize its a mess.
I hope someone has load-tested that puppy.
All The best for new law in Vehicle department.