Maersk Oil Qatar has joined hands with the National Traffic Safety Committee, Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Williams Advanced Engineering for a new schools programme called Students for Road Safety.
The educational programme, launched yesterday at Qatar Foundation’s Qatar Academy, is the second initiative by Maersk Oil Qatar under the umbrella of the new national road safety identity, One Second.
Students for Road Safety focuses on developing awareness and understanding of road safety among students aged 12-18 years through workshops and the use of a state-of-the-art mobile driving simulator, designed and developed by Williams Advanced Engineering in Qatar.
Starting at Qatar Academy and travelling to schools across Qatar, the programme aims to reach tens of thousands of students over the coming years.
Sheikh Faisal al-Thani, Maersk Oil Qatar’s deputy managing director, said: “We are delighted to launch Students for Road Safety as part of our continuing focus on road safety.  This forms part of our social investment commitment that is designed to make a long-term contribution to Qatar through quality partnership programmes that have a real and lasting impact on lives.”
Abdulrahman Abdulla al-Obaidly, manager for Public Relations and Communications at QP, said: “Qatar Petroleum extends its strong support to the Students for Road Safety programme as, together with our partners, we firmly believe that instilling the value of safe driving at an early age would contribute greatly in developing students into future responsible drivers.”
Dr Eric Sands, Qatar Academy principal, said: “Young drivers are vulnerable on the roads and this innovative road driving simulator will give our students the unique opportunity to develop their skills at identifying potential hazards and assessing risk on the roads safely.”
Under the leadership of Williams Advanced Engineering’s Technology Centre, sophisticated simulation systems and road safety applications have been developed for the programme. The technology centre custom-built the mobile driving simulator - the first system of its kind - for Maersk Oil Qatar, which will be utilised for Students for Road Safety.  
The simulator allows students to participate in a fully immersive driving experience - based on the roads of Doha - under the guidance of a professional driving instructor and also enables them to better understand correct awareness and driving practices.
Founder and Team Principal of Williams Advanced Engineering Sir Frank Williams said, “Through programmes such as the One Second identity and the use of immersive simulator technology, we can arm Qatar’s youth with the skills and awareness needed to be safe behind the wheel and play a key role in reducing the number of accidents on Qatar’s roads.”
The simulator was built by a team of engineers at Williams Advanced Engineering. Local talent and graduates from Qatar Academy, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar and Texas A&M University at Qatar were a key part of the Williams technical team and offered insights into the cultural and behavioural aspects of road safety in Qatar.
A locally based team of engineers employed at Williams Technology Centre, Qatar, spent 12 months and 10,000 man hours designing and building the portable road safety simulator that will tour local schools.