Traffic officials are brainstorming new ways to improve road safety, including requiring backseat passengers to buckle up and imposing higher fines for those using their mobile phones while driving.

Among some of the more creative ideas: requiring repeat offenders to work in a mortuary where bodies of victims of deadly road crashes are kept – a punishment used in other countries, Brigadier Mohamed Saad Al Kharji, Traffic Department director, told a local newspaper.

Al Kharji, however, didn’t say whether such a punishment would be coming to Qatar.

The Peninsula reports:

Fines might be increased for various violations, especially for using gadgets like mobile phones for talking and texting, and accessing Facebook and Twitter while driving, (Al Kharji) hinted…

A lot of motorists use these gadgets while driving and that is one of the major causes of road mishaps…

About plans under study to make the use of seal belts compulsory for those seated in the rear of a car, he said it has been noticed that in some road crashes people sitting at the back have also perished or suffered serious injuries because they were not using seat belts.

Requiring backseat passengers to buckle up has long been a policy in many countries. But how such a law would be enforced in Qatar, where cameras do most of the policing on the roads, is anyone’s guess.

Thoughts?