Major General Mohamed Saad Al Kharji
DOHA: The General Directorate of Traffic yesterday commemorated the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR) under the slogan ‘Roads Have Stories’.
The event was held at the General Directorate of Traffic Auditorium in the participation of a number of entities such as the National Traffic Safety Committee, the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Transport and Communications and Qatar Transportation and Traffic Safety Center at Qatar University took part in the event. Major General Mohamed Saad Al Kharji, Director General of Traffic and Vice Chairman of the NTSC, said: “We must remember the millions of victims of road accidents in the world and the suffering of their families and friends, in addition to the great loss of economic resources due to the big economic cost of treating injuries resulting from these accidents. Besides that, the efforts of the police, ambulance, civil defense, and others who lost their lives to prevent the recurrence of such incidents have to be appreciated as well.”
Al Kharji stressed that the danger caused by road accidents led the United Nations to adopt collective international action aimed at reducing the seriousness of the situation, under Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.
Dr. Mohammed Bin Hamad Al Thani, Director of the Public Health Department at the Ministry of Public Health, pointed out that the State has paid great attention to providing safety for all road users. “Therefore, the National Strategy for Traffic Safety was launched and all governmental and non-governmental sectors participated in efforts to reduce the road accident mortality rate in 2017 by 75% lower than that of 2006.”
Rashid Taleb Al Nabit, Assistant Undersecretary for Land Transport at Ministry of Transport & Communications, said that traffic accidents are transcontinental to all countries of the world and are in a steady increase despite the efforts exerted by countries to reduce them.
He pointed out that the statistics indicate that the GCC countries loose more than $19bn a year as a result of traffic accidents on the road, which is equivalent to 3.7percent of the total losses globally, and that the mortality rate tops the list globally, reaching 24 cases per 100,000 people.
Brigadier Mohammed Abdullah Al Maliki, Secretary of the National Traffic Safety Committee, pointed out that the aim of commemorating the victims of road accidents was to demonstrate our determination and strength to avoid repeating these painful tragedies, and to work with all force to reduce road accidents that cause casualties, through the developing plans and programs that achieve security and safety for road users and pedestrians.
Dr. Hassan Al Thani, the Head of Trauma and Vascular Surgery at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), said that the accident database in Qatar shows that more than 2000 people suffer from injuries, most of them due to traffic accidents.
On the sidelines of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Accident Victims, an awareness exhibition was opened at General Directorate of Traffic.
