People enjoy dune bashing at Sealine. Photo credit: Abdul Basit/The Peninsula
Many stories of tragic accidents are buried beneath the beautiful golden dunes of the Sealine desert. The beauty and purity of the Sealine dunes have been witness to tragic accidents that have taken young lives in recent years due to careless dune bashing.
The Sealine area attracts many dune bashing enthusiasts, especially at the beginning of the winter, as they search for some entertainment. Perhaps, the primary motivation for this hobby is that people can drive with no speed limit, which is sometimes abused, leading to several accidents, with some proving fatal.
To curb such occurrences, the General Directorate of Traffic recently established a special committee to address the serious issue of traffic accidents in the Sealine area.
The Sealine committee will start its work from the beginning of the winter camping season. The focus has been on Sealine because it is among the places where many vehicles and people are present during the camping season, and reckless dune bashing is practised in the area.
According to the General Directorate of Traffic’s statistics for 2018, the Sealine area ranked fifth in locations with most traffic deaths, with as many as eight people who lost their lives in traffic accidents in the area that year.
As for the causes of traffic accidents in the Sealine Area, the Department said that the reasons include families’ neglect on driving of motorbikes by under-age young children which is a violation of law, and indulgence in reckless drifting without meeting security and safety requirements.
The Department said that significant traffic violations in the Sealine area include reckless driving, drifting, and hiding vehicles’ number plates that endanger people’s lives and road users’ property.
The Traffic Department also reminded people that the Qatari law bans taking pictures of accidents for several reasons, including considering the people who were in the accident themselves and their relatives’ feelings.
Any violator of the law will expose themselves to punishment, mainly if the accident resulted in death or serious injuries.
“We do not want such incidents to be seen by the parents of deceased because it causes great pain and sometimes even psychological trauma for the families of these people,” the traffic department said.
Meanwhile, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is working to provide available services in the Sealine area to reach the injured as quickly as possible.
Saleh Al Maqarih Al Marri, Assistant Executive Director at Hamad Ambulance, said: “The camping season has begun. We have provided many medical supplies to take care of any sick or injured person in the event of accidents or others.”
“We are keen on making first aid available as soon as possible. All campers are welcome to visit the clinic, and there is also mobile aid in case of accidents,” Al Marri told Qatar TV recently about Sealine Medical Clinic.
Al Marri also mentioned that the tourism authorities had requested HMC’s services, adding that the Ambulance Service will increase its fleet to six and five 4x4s (which have a better modification to cope with the Sealine terrain) during weekends and official holidays.
