Manama: High speed driving remains the major cause of road accidents in Qatar, far ahead of other factors, a study indicates.

"Speeding is responsible for 72.3 per cent of the total number of accidents, while jumping traffic lights is to blame for 7.6 per cent of accidents," according to the study on the causes of traffic accidents conducted by Badriya Al Qahtani, a Qatari research scholar.

Drink driving ranks third with a percentage of six, Qatari daily The Peninsula reported on Thursday.

Around 13 per cent of the respondents said that at least one of their relatives was killed or incapacitated, partly or fully, in a road mishap, and 61 per cent said that they were caught in traffic violation once or a number of times, the study said.

For 25 per cent of those surveyed, traffic accidents are more dangerous than drug or liquor addiction.

However, 50 per cent of the respondents said that drug and liquor addictions ranked on top of the list of social malaise plaguing the country.

The study indicated that following the implementation of a new traffic law in late 2007, the ratio of road accidents dropped from 16.6 deaths to 14.6 per 100,000 people, while the ratio of the injured fell from 387 to 307 per 100,000 people.

People in general supported the increase in the fines for jumping traffic lights, driving at high speed, overtaking from the right side, driving without license, driving in the wrong direction as well as driving under the influence of liquor. However, a majority of the respondents thought that not using safety belt and using a mobile phone while driving were minor violations and said that they did not approve of the increase in the penalties for such violations, the paper reported.

More than one third of the respondents (35.4 per cent) supported the points system to control traffic violations, while 30 per cent said that it was not sufficiently good.

Half of the respondents thought that the new law could not help reduce traffic jams, while only 12.7 per cent said that the legislation was positive and could control snarls.
According to the study, people in general were not aware of the traffic law, including 23 per cent of the university students surveyed.