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Hisham Aljundi
Doha
Qatar is keen on reaching the UN goal on road safety aiming at reducing road fatalities by 50 percent in the country, said Director-General of General Traffic Department (GDT) of the Ministry of Interior (MoI) Brigadier Mohammed al Kharji.
He said Qatar ranked among the countries with the lowest ratio in terms of road fatalities and the ratio is decreasing compared to the previous years.
Kharji was speaking at an event to commemorate the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims jointly organised by the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC) and the General Traffic Department under the theme 'Towards reducing traffic fatalities by 50%' in Doha on Sunday.
In a data display, Brig Kharji revealed that Qatar has the lowest road fatalities rate in the Middle East region and GCC countries.
The data also reflected that the most fatal road accidents occurred in the northern and southern regions of Qatar though with significant drop compared to 2016.
Brigadier Kharji praised all governmental bodies, particularly the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), for their efforts in contributing to reduction of road fatalities.
On his side, Sheikh Dr Mohammed bin Hamad al Thani, head of Public Health Department at MoPH, said Qatar is committed to the UN sustainability goals, including decreasing road fatalities by providing quick medical response to road accidents.
He said that road accidents take the lives of almost 12,000 people around the world each year in addition to around five million injuries.
"By joining hands with GDT and other public bodies, we are working hard on fulfilling the National Health Strategy's goals which include reducing the road accidents and fatalities", Sheikh Mohammed said.
He also clarified that the National Health Strategy and the MoPH budget gave much importance to the traffic safety measures.
According to him, the major steps taken by MoPH to reduce road fatalities was amending the means of communication with ambulance to ensure quick response and saving lives as well as the post medical care treatment to rehabilitate the victims.
At the end of the ceremony, some victims of road accidents who delivered speeches and gave advice to the attendees about road safety were honoured by the officials to convey a message to the world and commemorate the special day.
