By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter

Strict enforcement of traffic laws will further boost initiatives to minimise road accidents in the country, Qatar Chain Reaction (QCR) founding member Ben Keane told Gulf Times.
“Anything to do with road safety is always good but the success such programmes depends on the follow-up of the findings,” he said.
Driving to and from work, Keane has observed that many motorists in the country both male and female are not wearing safety belts, others are on the phone and, worse, some have babies sitting on the lap.
Citing the importance of the workshops, conferences and seminars on road safety, he noted that implementing the findings from these kinds of initiatives will significantly help in making Qatar’s roads safer.
The Interior Ministry’s Traffic Department recently held a ‘National Workshop on Effective Actions on Accident Prevention to Mitigate Number of Qatar Road Accidents’ which was attended by Qatari government officials and private sector representatives.
Institutions such as the Qatar Road Safety Studies Centre at Qatar University revealed that they are conducting various research activities and studies to promote road safety and reduce the number of vehicular accidents in the country.
Qatar will also host the 24th World International Traffic Medicine Association (ITMA) Congress from November 16 to 18, under the patronage of Prime Minister and Minister of Interior HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani.
The event will include various discussions on traffic medicine and safety, integrated healthcare services, rescue services and security measures, educational programmes, and legal issues which form part of the traffic medicine system.
ITMA will gather experts from different parts of the world to present latest research and studies related to traffic medicine and safety aimed at reducing the number of accidents on the road.
A big delegation of Swedish researchers, government representatives and researchers in specific areas of traffic medicine and road safety will take part in the event.
Sana al-Ansari, a young Qatari lady, also made a short film titled ‘If They Only Knew’ to raise awareness and gradually stop fatal accidents on Qatar’s roads.
The film has been selected for the Ajyal Film Festival under the ‘Made in Qatar’ category and it will be screened from the end of November to the first week of December.
“She is still working diligently trying to make a difference,” Sana’s mother told Gulf Times. “We want to push people to actually go and see the film when Ajyal premieres it. It is our chance to ‘spread the word’ about road accidents in Qatar.”
For its part, QCR along with all bike groups and cyclists in Qatar launched the “share the road’ campaign which drew hundreds of cyclists and enthusiasts from various communities in Qatar, also aimed at raising awareness on road safety.
“All these studies and talks are an absolute waste of time unless they are followed up by the police or other appointed agencies,” he said. “If this is not done or the rules are not enforced, road safety workshops are pointless.”
However, Keane noted that road accidents also happen in various parts of the world.
“You don’t need to be on a bike to have an accident, how many accidents do we see on a daily basis?” he said. “Every care must be taken when riding the bike, bright lights, bright clothes, helmet and a support car when possible.”