Statistics presented by Col Mohammed Radi al-Hajri, director of the Traffic Awareness Department at the General Directorate of Traffic, on Wednesday showed that negligence and reckless driving accounted for 2,442 accidents at a rate of 42.4% of the total cases.
While 21.9% of the cases happened due to not keeping a safe distance, 12.3% were due to deviation from the road. Other reasons including red signal jumping, non-adherence to lane discipline, speeding and overtaking resulted in 13.4 % of the total cases.
While 21.9% of the cases happened due to not keeping a safe distance, 12.3% were due to deviation from the road. Other reasons including red signal jumping, non-adherence to lane discipline, speeding and overtaking resulted in 13.4 % of the total cases.
A total of 69 drivers died in road traffic accidents in 2020, accounting for 50% of the fatality. The rest of the fatalities included 26 passengers (18.8%) and 43 pedestrians (31.2%).
The traffic fatality rate in Qatar has continued to decline since 2008 when 230 deaths at a rate of 12 per 100,000 population were reported. It continued to decline over the past years registering only a slight fluctuation within two years. Col al-Hajri noted that the death rate in Qatar is significantly lower than global rates as the country has recorded an accident mortality rate of only four deaths per 100,000 population. African countries have recorded 26.6, Eastern Europe and Asia Minor 18, European countries 9.3, Southeast Asian countries 20.7 and the North and South America 15.6.
"More initiatives will be taken up to further bring down the accident rate in Qatar," Col al-Hajri added.
