GCC loses 2.5pc of national income in road accidents

By Staff Reporter — MUSCAT: May 8 - A seminar organised by State Council on Monday reviewed the traffic statistics in Oman and the nature of accidents in Oman. Ahmed bin Mohammed al Qasimi, director of planning and studies, Ministry of Health, road injuries ranked second among the most important causes of death in the Sultanate of Oman for the years 2005 and 2015. It was pointed out from traffic accidents bring heavy losses as the GCC countries lose around one to 2.5 per cent of their national income generated. According to the paper, traffic accident victims make up between 13 per cent and 31 per cent of the total number of hospital patients, and occupy 10 per cent of the hospital beds worldwide.

He also pointed out that the social effects of traffic accidents are the poor performance and inability to raise children, the use of drugs and psychotropic substances and widowhood and high spinsterhood in society. The paper recommended intensifying the traffic culture, improving the training system on driving, reviewing road and vehicle specifications, and continuing to develop and activate legislation and develop the traffic control system.

Dr Ahmed Al Reesi, academician, dealt with the factors affecting unsafe driving behavior among young drivers. He pointed out that statistics show that more than (95 per cent) of traffic accidents in Oman occur due to unsafe driving behavior especially among young drivers, and 40 per cent of accidents occurred for drivers aged 17-25 years, according to the Traffic Statistics Report 2011.

These statistics also indicate the high rate of death and injury due to traffic accidents among drivers between 17-27 years.

He recommended the importance of a mechanism to intervene in three stages- driving before the use of the license, and in the period of learning driving and during the initial months after receiving the license.

The seminar was held in the presence of Dr Al Khattab bin Ghalib al Hinai, Vice-Chairman of the State Council.

In his paper, Lt Col Abdullah bin Hamad al Hosani said the steady increase in the number of vehicles by the end of 2016 to about 1, 371, 000 one million and three hundred and seventy-one thousand vehicles, accompanied by an increase in the number of driving licenses to reach the end of last year (14,25,581) licenses.

The number of accidents decreased by (8,209) accidents in 2012 to (4,721) accidents last year with a decrease of 51 per cent, the number of injuries decreased accordingly by 31 per cent, the number of deaths decreased by 45 per cent the paper reported that 14 per cent of road accidents were caused by neglect.

The indirect causes of traffic accidents include urban planning, quality of public transport, geographical nature, and population distribution.

Overpopulation is one of the most common causes of accidents, accounting for 55 per cent and drivers between 16 and 25 years cause maximum traffic accidents.

According to Qais bin Said al Suhay from Capital Market Authority (CMA), the accident compensation provided by insurance companies, increased from RO108 million in 2013 to more than RO116 million in 2016. While the number of insurance policies increased during the same period from 1, 60,000 documents to more than 1, 340, 0000 thousand documents.