The number of people killed in road accidents in Qatar hit a six-month high in October, which proved to be one of the deadliest periods on the country’s roads so far this year, according to newly released government figures.
Some 24 people died in vehicle collisions in October, new figures from the Ministry of Development, Planning and Statistics show. That’s double the number of fatalities recorded in September and the highest figure since April, when 29 people perished on Qatar’s roads.
At the same time, the number of speeding tickets and other traffic violations issued by authorities declined sharply that month.
Although the two are not necessarily related, the figures will likely fuel the popular perception that stricter enforcement of traffic laws is necessary to curb carnage on Qatar’s roads and deter the aggressive and dangerous driving habits of some residents.
There were several high-profile vehicle collisions in October that included a horrific crash caused by a speeding Land Cruiser that smashed into a parked Pathfinder SUV, killing three women, one man and a one-year-old baby.
In addition to such tragic cases, October also saw the highest number of fender-benders and other minor collisions so far this year. There were 603 such incidents in October, up from 545 the previous month.
There were 59 “serious” collisions reported, which is higher than the 36 comparable incidents recorded the month before but still lower than the 66 major accidents in July.
Qatar’s population is growing rapidly, leading to more vehicles on the road and increasing the odds of collisions. Despite this, the number of traffic accident deaths in Qatar has remained relatively stable in recent years.
However, authorities have set a goal of reducing the absolute number of traffic fatalities to 130 by 2022.
In the first 10 months of this year, 174 people have died on the country’s roads.
Safety initiatives
In recent years, authorities have attempted to make the country’s roads safer through education, public awareness campaigns and road design upgrades, among other measures. Last month, the Qatar Mobility Innovations Center officially launched several mobile apps designed to prevent motorists from using their phones while driving.
However, many residents have said they believe the solution is much simpler: more severe penalties for lawbreakers, and more police officers on the road.
The Ministry of Interior said in 2013 that a new highway patrol force would start operating at some point this year. More recently, Brig. Mohammed Saad Al-Kharji, the director-general of Qatar’s traffic department, told Doha News that an unspecified number of newly trained officers would be on the roads in late November and early December.
Enforcement action in October, however, took a sharp decline. There were 93,054 violations reported during the month, by far the lowest number since such figures started to be released in March.
By comparison, the previous low was 124,230 violations recorded in July. The highest number of violations was recorded in June, when 165,572 incidents were reported.
Here’s a copy of the full statistics report:
Thoughts?
Retraction: On Jan. 8, we learned that the Ministry of Development, Planning and Statistics had omitted a category of traffic violations from its report covering the month of October. By leaving out “other” violations, the report likely understates the number of citations. We’ve asked the ministry for clarification and the correct information, and will update this story as new information becomes available.
Update (Feb. 2): A subsequent ministry report included the missing “other” category of traffic violations. Including the 43,443 “other” violations, there are a total of 136,497 violations in October.
It is clear that enforcement is an issue, but it is clearer still that any enforcement when it happens will only apply to certain sections of the community
All business sectors, Companies factories, government head offices….and so many main offices are found in and around Doha. Doha is too small to accommodate the growing number of vehicles. In my opinion it’s better to relocate some of the main offices of companies to the other cities of Qatar. Check like Dukhan or Al khore or Madinet Al Shamal, They are lonesome. If you disperse the companies, the people and the vehicles will follow suit. Then at least you can reduce the flow of traffic and accidents in Doha.
Wrong DN. Enforcement always corelates with fatalities and injury on the road. Enforcement down and fatalities up in this case..always has been…trust me 23 years in Aus police and now back in after 2 and a bit harrowing years on doha roads its a well known fact amongst civilised police and concerned govt. Get the useless Qatar police to do their job and you will notice a marked decrease in fatalities. Leave then to their current disempowered lazy useless ways and the figures will reflect same.
Must be great to be back in racistville, so great you still write essays on Doha even after your left! LOL. Clown.
I am not clear on why you believe the views expressed to be racist. Clearly they are critical but what is it you see in them that is specifically racist?
hes not calling his particular comment racist, hes calling Australia racist. cant really say if i agree or not, dont really know enough about Australia
That’s a very immature and stupid comment.
Oh yes, it only is an acceptable comment if the target is not the holy white man.
Seriously?
Talking about racism…
holy white man? stupid doesn’t really do this comment justice
Of course you find it stupid, your god complex does not allow you to accept that some may not view you in that way.
Coming from you I take that as a great compliment
You are just full of wit! Too witty for your own good! Damn!
I can’t help it, it’s my god complex
Well at least you acknowledge it, unlike most of your cool “tick-up” buddies on here :-).
Give them time, after discussing with you for long enough they will submit to your wisdom
Say inshalla…
Perhaps you should use your intellect, that you like to comment ad nauseum about and realise that generalising a whole continent is, in itself, inherently racist
Funny how you clowns emerge preaching PC crap when one of your own is the one being generalized. All of a sudden it is offensive and inappropriate huh? LOL.
What does “one of your own” mean? I am not Australian and you have no idea of my ethnic background or the colour of my skin. You just highlight your own intolerance by preaching such nonsense, which I do not find “offensive”, just childlike and petulant.
I don’t need to know your ethnic background to recall that you make comments similar in nature to that clown, and thus identify with him as “one of your own”. Yes of course you would, if your fellow clowns had made similar comments about locals it would be considered insightful and deserving of up ticks.
If you’re not actually still a child with some years left to grow up mentally, then I really feel sorry for you
You should reserve that pity for your sad attempts at humor. Oh and take this “tick up” from me, since I know that is what you are ultimately looking for with your trite one-liners.
You’ve rumbled me, I live for tick-ups, please give me more.
It always makes me laugh when someone living in the gulf which has a huge problem with racism and discrimination throws racist jabs at othes.
I believe Australia does have race issues but the point he makes is a good one. He is talking about preventing deaths on the road, the vast majority of which are non-european, so in fact he is talking about preventing the deaths of the darker skin cousins.
It makes me laugh when expats in the gulf come with the attitude that they were a high ranking executive of a Fortune 500 org back home when the reality is they would not be fit to run a Tesco express.
It is not this comment that determines whether that clown is a racist or not, it is his history on this site that does.
“History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren’t there.”
George Santayana
His posts are on several articles on this site and he is the author of them, so how is that quote even relevant?
Don’t worry Saleem, one day you will get it. By the way, George died in 1952, so well done DN for keeping those old posts.
I’m afraid you need to “get it” to realize that quote is simply not applicable to the comment I made, lol.
Yes, it’s completely irrelevant. You didn’ tmention the word history at all. Keep up with the excellent comments, they are enjoyed by all.
See this is why it is important that you understand a quote before citing it. The quote is irrelevant because the “history” in this case is views of an author documented by the author himself. Just because the word “history” was in my sentence does not mean you can google any quote under the field “history” and hope by using it it will make your appear wise, because context is very important here.
Exactly, that’s what I did. Google “History” and that came up. Also, I am glad you have a direct reference to the “History” of other posters, plus your own personal pre-determination if they are racist or not. Again, keep us posted. If you took the time to actually read the replies before your knee jerk responses, you might have a better perspective than the same confrontational diatribe you sprout every day. As for appearing wise, I shall leave that to the readers who can see your other “Exceptional” posts today and make their own judgement, whatever their skin color, or country of origin.
A logical and objective person would have reached the same conclusion regarding that poster being a bigot based on their previous posts.
No need to get all worked up about it though, I certainly am not, and as token of my goodwill let me share with you a wise quote from a former US president, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” – Bill Clinton (very relevant here since you used the word “I” above as Bill did in his famous quote).
keep digging buddy, this is highly entertaining
That’s you through and through, logical and objective “Lol”. Of course only you could possibly come to that conclusion. It must be bigotry and hatred, not exchange of views. In the end, the more you continue to reply to everyone on this thread the bigger the “Lol” we get. As for getting worked up….I think I will leave that to you and your 20 posts. Now I am getting bored. (Maybe Monica said that?) Let me know.
Smartphones allow for rapid instant messaging, I can understand why you would not have known that though. Must have been tiring writing that defensive essay on your inability to properly use quotes…LOL
Let me know when you buy yours. Look up the word essay as you are it. Actually, don’t, it’s not going to help for future posts. Looking foward to the next rant LOL
You call that a rant? That was education, a valuable lesson on not pulling random quotes because they share common words with a sentence.
Actually, your education is continuing now. Just look at all the lovely teachers you have on this thread trying to give you valuable lessons in humility, objectivity and common sense. Sad you will never attend any of those classes.
Blah blah blah… find me a quote to sum that crap up.
Now you know how we feel reading yours……………..
Best that we defer to the eminence of the Qatari intellects, eh? You are the clown.
I never talked about Qataris being intellectuals, however clowns are not known for being observant and logical when they comment, so I understand why you would respond in such a way.
Yawn. You aren’t one of those pathetically useless so called ‘policeman’ are you? If you are you should hang your head in shame for letting these deaths go unchecked.
I am not referring to your post on this article you clown, your general attitude towards Qatar and citizens in 90 % of your other posts.
Saleem – what a pointless waste of time your comment is and absolutely nothing to do with the article or comment.
Your ignorance of Australia, ‘racistville’ is self evident. An incredibly multi cultural country where people are judged and employed based upon their abilities, not on their ethnic backgrounds, unlike Qatar where people are paid according to their ethnic background.
Australia does not have malls that institute family days to exclude indians, philippinos, bengalis etc from premises.
Nor does Australia have a system of kafala, of passport with holding, of not paying workers for more than a year etc.
If you tried sitting outside of a shop in Australia beeping your car horn because youre too ‘important’ to get out of your car and act civilised to order some food or groceries you would soon find yourself under arrest for causing a public nuisance.
Australian road safety is amongst the best in the world, while car ownership & traffic has increased in the last 30 years, fatalities have declined. Cities such as Melbourne & Sydney, with double the population of Doha and much much bigger have far less road fatalities than Doha.
It’s about both law enforcement and equality before the law. The police in Australia treat everyone equally while in Qatar, qataris are not subjected to any kind of road traffic enforcement, speeding, driving while texting, no seat belts, no seat belts for children or as i have often seen, speeding while driving and texting while having a young child sit on the lap of the driver.
In australia the head of the country does not block roads and station police with machine guns to clear the roads and hold everyone up because they are so important, whereas in Doha it is the opposite, which sends an example of we are above you and the law..
Road traffic police in Australia have a zero tolerance approach to enforcing the road rules with loss of licence and loss of vehicle for irresponsible and dangerous driving being the consequence. In Doha irresponsible & dangerous driving are the norm.
The vast majority of drivers here don’t even have the ability or consideration to indicate when changing lanes.
I am outraged at the thinly concealed racism in your comment.
😉
I wonder how many OZ coppers would come to Doha for 8000qar a month?
Nil none.
You can only come back to Qatar buddy, no where else will take you…
Dear your Highness,
As a concern expat, can we please hire a Western police/authorities so we’re sure that the law of the road is enforced. I have been here for over 9 years now and the accident and fatalities is really concerning.
Yours,
Concern Citizen
Germans would be nice.
LOL…
Don’t care where they are from, as long as they are competent, and that seems to not be teh case now…
Citizens would not like this, if road laws are enforced it would save lives but we must remember some enjoy the dangerous driving and even take part in illegal road races in Qatar despite the risks.
Well Colgate still does offer its products in the UK despite the citizens not being particularly keen on brushing their teeth.
As stereotyping and trolling goes, that is pretty lame. We do brush our teeth occasionally, I assure you…..maybe we should try the twigs instead?
The twigs are not for teeth cleaning, they are laced with pcp and give you that sense of invincibility. Why else you think we got people driving recklessly at 180 km/h not fearing death?
Ah OK silly me, there I was thinking that people here drove like that because they irrationally believed in an exceptionally improbable celestial deity, mostly only because the previous generation did and that deity was only one of thousands invented by ignorant humans as they sought to explain the world around them, and attributed and ascribed anything that happened in their mostly irrelevant lives to the personal choices and whims of a capricious, hard-to-read and apparently easily upset supernatural power? It seems I was wrong though, if a 16 year old dies unnecessarily in a crash, it was what the caring omnipotent loving god who created him wanted! Oh yes, and the twigs.
Leave the denouncing of mainstream religions to those who do it intelligently, I can enjoy reading material written by Dawkins or Hitchens, you on the other hand gave me a major headache with a few sentences.
LOl…..saleem, are you joking or serious about guys in the UK not care about their oral hygiene? I am dumbfounded knowing that a typical British talk, comment and criticize people who don’t care about their hygiene and always appear to be cleaner than every other person i notice. Now, i am not attacking anybody…i am just surprise and not sure Saleem is serious about above comment. Saleem, pls., i need prove and statistic. its a serious allegation.
Don’t worry, proper enforcement will be in place tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, or the day after the day after tomorrow, and any other sentence that you can think of which includes the word “tomorrow”.
and inshala, don’t forget inshala…
Must be the fault of all these new arrivals in Doha. Maybe don’t let them drive in Qatar for their first 6 months so they can learn how to tackle the traffic whilst safe in the back of a taxi.
Actually I am wondering if the new arrivals who have a clue about driving would actually venture onto the roads once they see the myriad of “driving styles”
It’s a shame there wasn’t more coverage on the horrible vehicle incident which resulted in a poor woman having her legs severed while waiting in the air-conditioned Olympic Building bus stop in West Bay. Also it’s a shame there wasn’t more reporting on the disgusting response by onlookers ( of all races and residences) who chose to video on their phone rather than offer first aid assistance. The bus stop is now gone, and as I drive past each day I’m reminded of the inhumanity and devastation.
Same old. Same old story. I’ve been here eight years.
Every year we hear the same determined approach to bring down the figures.
All the time I see children roaming free in cars, policemen on phones as they weave through traffic, military personel and police in private cars driving on wrong side of the road in order to bypass queues to junctions, the same people who are supposed to uphold the laws of this country never seem to use indicators or observe road lines, traffic police ignoring stupid lane swopping and cutting in on roundabouts without batting an eyelid.
I could go on and on and on. But it never changes except to get worse. Sometimes it’s like competing in Whacky Races just to get to school on time.
I recently joined Muscat after seven years in Doha. The difference noticed
on roads here…well mannered driving…no over speeding…no light flashing and
vigilant police patrol on the roads to
book even wrong side overtaking without any leniency for both nationals and
expats. Doha, both drivers and enforcement, needs to grow far to match this.
I recently joined Muscat after seven years in Doha. The difference noticed on roads here…well mannered driving…no over speeding…no light flashing and vigilant police patrol on the roads to fine even wrong side overtaking without any leniency for both nationals and expats. Doha, both drivers and enforcement, needs to grow far to match this.
Yep decent civilised people.
The Royal Omani Police are one of the most professional, and courteous, police forces I have dealt with – anywhere! Never experienced that feeling of dread whenever Residence card or driving licence renewals were due. Scan fingerprint, pay fee, done – in a few minutes.
Yup really…still remember the lady police officer giving me my changed driving license..from Qatar to Oman..with a courteous smile…Qatar yet to grow.
Enforcement should be effective and visible. Most drivers are rash since they see no police on the roads. ..its a free 4 all literally. . Few radars here n there are not enough..
Doha has traffic police????
When a driver violates traffic rules, and is given a ticket( by chance ! ), the only punishment he gets is to pay for it at the time he renews his vehicle permit, and then he can ( get away ) with half the amount or more waived if he knows ( how to ). This is far below standard, aside from those who keep driving/bullying/killing with unregistered vehicles. Traffic laws are only efficient on paper, and paper reveals that lame enforcement = more casualties, as always…I’m not surprised. I just feel sad for those innocent who get injured or lose their lives for none of their fault !
Well that escalated quickly…Now I’m worried I don’t have the appropriate skin tone to post here. I don’t care if cops are brown, white, black, grey or purple…as long as they treat all colors the same 🙂
I was not referring to that particular post being racist, I actually agree that traffic cops here don’t do very much where it matters, and have said as much on many occasions on DN in the past. My comment above is based on other interactions I have had with him on other DN articles.
You need to relax. I usually see eye to eye on your posts, but all your posts on this article have made you look like the racist. Let it go.
Oh Qatar sort it out ! A country that considers constructing an artificial cloud to benefit football supporters and yet it can’t sort it’s traffic carnage out. Qatar is a great country in some man aspects but safety on the roads is not one of them. 24 people lose their lives in one month, that’s 24 families grieving and devastated by needless deaths of loved ones, for a small country like Qatar that’s a disgrace. If you think the western media are giving the country a hard time about slavery wait till they start looking at road death statistics.
Qatar need’s a better public transport system to get drivers of the roads, operate a free tram system like that in Perth Australia. Traffic calming systems need to be incorporated into new road structures. Ban using your mobile phone while driving. More pedestrian crossings.More signs pre junction turn off in large print so drivers are not switching lane at the last minute.The most important thing though is to enforce traffic law take dangerous drivers of the roads, incorporate a points system on the drivers licence like the UK, and please put some more traffic crossing’s on main roads. I have nearly been knocked down 3 times this year while crossing on an actual crossing. Oh please Qatar you can do better and stop the family devastation due to needless road DEATH !
Hey Saleem…peace bro…chillax man….you need a nice soothing cup of warm milk, a bex and a lay down man.
Walahi, i like Dohanews a lot. Long Live Dohanews. Long Live Dohanews crew, Long Live MIMH, Long Live Albanai, Long Live, Abdulrahman, Long Live A_qtr, Long Live Osama Alassir, Long Live Observant One, and recently: Long Live Saleem, Kingpin, Expart girl, Desert Witch, Saeed khan, and others who regularly make this page never boring either with positive or negative comments…its all for the betterment of the Qatari society. I am now officially like many of this guys listed Dohanews addict. Finally, guys, please take it easy with MIMH and Saleem they are our friends in the house. Peace.
For a joke, dohanews should pay MIMH salary LOL