Photo: Kammuty VP / The Peninsula
Owing to school vacations, the traffic violations related to speeding have soared in the country. An official of the ministry of interior told The Peninsula that the most common traffic violation being registered nowadays against motorists was speeding.
"Speeding is the most common traffic violation due to ongoing school vacations," said Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Radi Al Hajri, Director of Media and Awareness at the Traffic Department.
To another question he said that using mobile phone by the driver at a signal waiting for green light would not be fined. He brushed aside the impression created in social media that it was a traffic violation that could be slapped QR150 fine.
"We don’t have any fine in such amount (QR150) while the violation of using mobile while driving is QR500,” Al Hajri said.
This issue was circulating in social media especially on WhatsApp and this rumour was accompanied with some pictures which showed some maintenance men fixing cameras on the signals to catch violators.
Al Hajri said: "Motorists who use mobiles while driving are caught only by police patrols not through radars. It is not our priority to fix radars to catch use of mobile phones during driving. Radars were installed to catch violations which police men and patrols can’t caught like speeding.”
He also urged people to take information only from its original sources and not listen to rumours which circulate every time in social media.
Commenting on the issue related to private school drivers' capacity building through training and plans of hiring a British company’s traffic safety specialists for delivering lectures on safe driving and traffic rules to drivers of private school buses, he said: "The project is in the pipeline and not yet completed. But the Media and Awareness wing at the Traffic Department is ready to organize awareness lectures for any private school drivers if they asked it."
As per said project, the General Directorate of Traffic at the Ministry of Interior in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education will execute the plan, in collaboration with the British company to train schools' drivers.
According to the plan, drivers of private school buses will have to pass an examination conducted by the company at the end of a three-day course. Otherwise their names will be sent to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education for necessary action, while the successful drivers will be given certificates of eligibility.
In case of mistakes committed by any driver included in the list, the Ministry of Education will have to take the responsibility," an official of the Traffic Department earlier told The Peninsula.
The lectures aim at promoting a traffic culture among drivers and reducing accidents.
