Someone dies on the roads in Oman every 8 hours

I saw this video yesterday and think that it's a really well made video that may finally get some people to wear their seatbelts while driving here, which is a step in the right direction towards a better attitude to driving and road safety in general.


Or you can click on this link to watch it on You Tube (it's only a few minutes, it's in Arabic but there are English subtitles).

The latest stats that I've seen in the papers lately show:

Between January and September 2012, there have been 5,759 reported road accidents, which has killed 814 people and injured another 8,278 people. An average of 640 accidents, 90 deaths and 920 people injured every month this year.

In 2010 (entire year), there were 7,556 accidents, with 1,051 people killed and 10,046 people injured. An average of 630 accidents, 88 deaths and 837 people injured every month for 2010.

In 2011, there were 7,719 accidents and 1,056 people died and 11,342 people injured. An average of 643 accidents, 88 deaths and 945 people injured every month for 2010. (source)

So, to sum up: More people are dying and getting injured in accidents this year than in the last 2 years, and to put it another way, someone has died on the roads of Oman, on average, every 8 hours of every day this year so far.

If I meet one more person who brags about the number of speeding tickets they have (I recently met someone who proudly claimed he had over RO 4,000 in speeding fines) I will consider slashing their tires to keep them off the road.

I've blogged about this before and we've said it many times before: ROP need to do a better job at enforcing the rules of the road. Who here has seen an ROP officer talking on their mobile phones while driving a police car? Or how about speeding without their lights / sirens on? Or how about pulling people over on the side of the highway without their lights on to warn oncoming traffic? Or how about having driven past a police car, breaking the speed limit in the process, and not been pulled over by the cops?

It's really simple boys and girls: Speed kills. So does being a lazy idiot and irresponsible vehicle owner, but lets start with one issue first hey?

le fin.