Lieutenant Colonel Salem Fahad Ghurab
Doha: Lieutenant Colonel Salem Fahad Ghurab, head of driver's licences at the General Directorate of Traffic has said that the Qatari proposal to adopt a unified training guide for driving education has been worked on by a large group of specialists and experts in the traffic field.
The aim of the guide is to raise the level of efficiency of driving schools in a way that contributes to enhancing the protection of all road users.
“The driving training guide has been worked on by a large group of specialists and experts in the traffic field, in addition to a number of authorities concerned in this regard to come up with a comprehensive guide that enables the driver to know everything related to the road,” he said.
Recently speaking to Qatar TV about the most important contents of the guide, he noted that the guide includes a set of information that a driver must know, including the driver’s knowledge of the requirements for obtaining a licence and traffic violations according to the Qatari Traffic Law.
The State of Qatar, represented by the General Directorate of Traffic, recently participated in the 36th meeting for Traffic Directors-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council States.
The Qatari side presented a proposal to adopt a unified training guide for driving education, with the aim of raising the level of efficiency of driving schools in the member states and in a way that contributes to enhancing the protection of all road users, earlier reported after the meeting. The proposed guide also includes the importance of driver’s knowledge of traffic violations and the value of fines, in addition to his knowledge of first aid on roads, he added.
“We are focusing on all these things because driving requires a lot of things, not only experience in driving. Learning the guide will help raise the level of traffic culture to achieve road safety outcomes,” said Lt Col Ghurab.
He also said that driving schools are an essential partner in this regard, and the guide has been circulated among them as they are responsible for training and the goal behind unified driving training guide is to standardize the training process within a specific program.
Recent statistics, he noted, showed decrease in the number of deaths and the number of accidents due to efforts and public awareness to reach this result.
Around ninety seven percent of road accidents last year were with no injuries, according to the General Directorate of Traffic Department.
The General Directorate has said that the minor accidents represented 2.7 percent, while the major accidents were about 0.3 percent.
The statistics showed in a recently open awareness webinar on traffic safety held in cooperation with Public Relations Department of MoI.
