Muscat: Eighty people were killed on the roads of Oman in December, mostly due to reckless driving, according to Royal Oman Police (ROP)
The death of six members of a family in Buraimi was the most gruesome traffic accident in December.
“The car that met with the fatal accident in Buraumi was travelling at a very high speed on an internal road before hitting a roundabout,” said Captain Rashid Bin Sulaiman Al Abry, from the ROP Public Relations Department.
He added that the owner of the vehicle committed another traffic rule violation that of overloading his car. “All six dead and four injured were travelling in the same vehicle and belong to the same family,” he added.
He urged motorists not to overload their vehicles. “Either people overload their vehicles with goods or with passengers and that poses risk not only to their vehicles but to the others on the road too,” he pointed out.
According to ROP statistics, Batinah region in the north, which also connects Oman with UAE, saw the highest number of fatal accidents last month. “Twenty-six people died on the roads of the Batinah region,” he revealed.
Overall, 695 accidents were registered with the ROP in December with 962 people receiving moderate to serious injuries.
The 2011, meanwhile, started on an equally disastrous note even as ROP went on an overdrive to create awareness among the residents about the perils of reckless driving and speeding on Oman’s modern road network.
In the first week of this month 21 people died due to traffic accidents, according to the weekly statistics released by the ROP.
“We would advise people not to overload their vehicles, stick to speed limits, respect fellow drivers and show road ethics,” Captain Al Abry said while suggesting some of the steps to avoid continued fatalities on the roads of Oman.
