Call for tough rules as Oman road crashes claim 799 lives

Muscat: As many as 799 deaths were caused in road crashes this year despite efforts by Omani authorities to control reckless driving and speeding.

According to a study, the most alarming one is that almost 35-49 per cent of these victims are children.

Oman has one of the highest annual road death rates per 100,000 population in the Middle East. The general opinion is that the deterrents used here in Oman are not enough.

"The countries that have achieved dramatic reductions in crashes and fatalities have done so by consistently tackling one or more high-risk behaviours coupled with effective penalties that are uniformly enforced with high visibility policing," Bernadette Bhacker, a self-styled activist against road crash fatalities, told Gulf News.

Oman-based British lawyer Bernadette and her Omani husband are known for their vigorous campaigns to create awareness and bring down the crash rate in Oman.

Both have set up Al Mustadaama (Sustainability), an Omani non-profit organisation working as a road safety advocate in the GCC region.

Support

And, worried at the rate innocent children losing life early due to road crashes, the two have even created an awareness website www.salimandsalimah.org - that concentrates on safety of children in the vehicles as well as on the roads.

The site is part of a creative child restraint awareness campaign - Salim and Salimah, Safe and So ™ - developed by the couple in Arabic as well as in English.

The couple also gets full support from Ministry of Education, PDO Corporate HSE department and Khowla hospital emergency department in their endeavour to fight the menace of road crash deaths in the country.

The Royal Oman Police also puts in efforts to combat this problem and even set up more than 200 high quality radars on Oman's roads four years ago but the death rate on the roads is refusing to let up. Since 2000, more than 5,500 men, women and children have lost their lives in crashes and 70,000 have been injured, some disabled for life.

"This is a staggering number in a population of nearly 2.5 million," thinks Bernadette, who has lived in Oman for over 25 years.

She wants every one in the society to take responsibility rather than blame others either for not enough policing or bad driving.

"It is up to everyone to play their part in bringing about this critical change of mindset and heart. Road safety is not the sole responsibility of government. We individuals are the ones behind the wheel. Road safety is what we provide for each other on the road. You cannot control the behaviour of other drivers on the road but you can control your own and the environment inside your own car," she added.

For safer roads

- Al Mustadaama is an Omani non-profit organisation working as a road safety advocate.

- Enhanced policing and uniform zero-tolerance enforcement of existing laws needed to control road rash deaths.

- Zero tolerance needed to enforce mobile phone driving ban.

- Every 6 seconds a person is killed or injured on the world's roads. A child dies every 3 minutes. That is 3,000 people, including 500 children, dying an early, often agonising, death every day or 1.2 million deaths a year. More than 80% of deaths occur in low and middle income countries like Oman.

- Worldwide, road crashes are the second leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 5 and 29 and the third leading cause for people between 30 and 44. It is number one killer of people aged between 10 and 45.

Website

The website on safety of children in the vehicles as well as on the roads can be accessed on www.salimandsalimah.org