By Samuel Kutty — MUSCAT: April 23 - Although speeding continues to claim lives and injure many people in the Sultanate, measures to tame the killer menace are bearing fruit. Speed limits coupled with hefty fines and jail term for offenders have helped the authorities put at least a brake on the number of accidents on roads. According to numbers from a recent infographic presentation by the Royal Oman Police (ROP), of the 4,721 accidents in 2016, a mammoth 2,499 were due to speeding. There has been a massive fall of 45 per cent in deaths in road accidents compared to what was in 2012.
Nearly, 55 per cent of the deaths and 63 per cent of injuries were caused by vehicles failing to abide by the speed limit. “It’s not that measures controlling speed limit alone can reduce accidents. They are only the tools to improve road safety. Motorists have to be aware of the casualties involved in speeding,” said a senior ROP official. According to the new law, the minimum punishment for speeding or endangering others’ lives will be imprisonment for 10 days and a fine of RO 100.
Meanwhile, maximum punishment, considering the circumstances defined in the law, is set at two years in prison and RO 3,000 fine.
“Since speeding is the number one cause of accidents, injuries and deaths, the rise in the fine and jail term justifies the goal,” the official said.
Colonel Ahmed Sultan al Nabhani, Assistant General-Director of Traffic, said the fall in the accident rate was made possible because of the dedicated and combined efforts of the ROP, institutions in both the public and private sector, and individuals.
While addressing a workshop, he said there has been a massive fall of 45 per cent in deaths in road accidents compared to what was in 2012.
Bad behaviour is the second most common cause of accidents, with a total of 705 cases, resulting in 55 deaths in 2016, followed by negligence with 672 accidents, the ROP graph shows.
Drivers who failed to keep safe distance and overtaking dangerously also played a part in the number of accidents on Oman’s roads last year.
“Accidents cause social and physiological problems and enormous financial losses. To curb accidents, apart from awareness, cooperation from all sectors concerned is required,” he said.
More radars will be put in place to check speeding drivers even if they slow down on approaching a radar.
These radars, being installed on highways, will calculate the speed between the two radars.
This radar will help reduce speeding on the roads, he said.
Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry show that insurance companies paid RO 123 million for 4,721 accidents last year, about 11 per cent more compared with 2015. According to Ahmed al Mamari, Director-General of Insurance Surveillance at Capital Market Authority, traffic accidents are a major concern that exhaust financial and human resources.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
