DOHA: Wearing dark coloured clothes in the night is one of the main causes of pedestrian deaths in road traffic accidents, which have reached 101 in two years, according to a senior official at the Traffic Department.
At least 56 pedestrians died due to night road accidents, said Captain Riyadh Ahmed Salih, Head of Traffic Awareness Section at the Traffic Department yesterday.
Wearing light coloured clothes in the night would help drivers see pedestrians and avoid accidents, he said speaking to expatriate community members at a seminar organised by the Traffic Department on ‘Pedestrian Safety is Everybody’s Responsibility’ to mark the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
Fifty-three percent of the victims were Nepalese and 19 of the road accidents in 2012 and 2013 occurred in the Industrial Area mostly in the night.
Also, 47 percent of the pedestrians who died in traffic accidents were Indians and 13 percent were Qataris.
Difference between the nature of roads and speed limits in Qatar and the home country of expatiates are identified as the main reasons for pedestrians becoming victims of road traffic accidents.
Negligence, weak eye sight, crossing the roads at roundabouts are also among the reasons causing leading to death of pedestrians in traffic accidents.
However, speeding vehicles have also been identified as a major cause of deaths of pedestrians.
Around 71 percent of the pedestrians die at the accident site and many get hit multiple times, said Dr Rafael
J Consunji, Director, Hamad Injury Prevention Programme at Hamad Medical Corporation. He said that there is a 90 percent chance of a vehicle moving at 76km per hour to hit and cause the death of a pedestrian.
Pedestrian deaths account for 33 percent of casualties in traffic accidents in Qatar.
The Peninsula
