Doha

27 Nov 2018

'The National Strategy for Traffic Safety has achieved a remarkable improvement in the standard of traffic safety in Qatar as the number of traffic accidental deaths decreased by 25% compared to 2013. In recognition of this success, Qatar has received the international award of traffic safety for the year 2018, Brig. Muhammed Abdullah Al Malky, Secretary General, Qatar National Traffic Safety Committee said today. He was addressing at the closing ceremony of two days long International Traffic Safety Conference held at Hotel Sheraton Doha.

Brig. Al Malki announced the recommendations of the conference for strengthening the present traffic safety system in the country and to reduce traffic accident rates to achieve 50% reduction in the number of deaths by 2022 in order to deliver 2022 World Cup successfully.

Among the recommendations also included enhancing cooperation with the United Nations and joining in the traffic safety related agreements, strengthening the role of intelligent transport systems, not only in solving traffic congestion problems, but also in improving traffic safety and reducing some irregularities or misconduct of road users and emphasizing on the importance of establishing a precise database for traffic and traffic accidents in line with the best international practices so that they are available for all.

The conference also underlined the importance of developing traffic accident investigations to identify the causes of these accidents and develop effective solutions, emphasizing on the role of scientific research in cooperation with local and international research centers to find innovative technological solutions and continuation of the teaching and promoting the concepts of traffic safety for students of schools, universities, colleges and civil and military colleges and to adopt local initiatives and innovations aimed at providing safe passage in the vicinity of schools and school buses.

On the second day of the conference, in the session on Traffic Safety,  Col. Mohammad Radhi Al Hajri, Director of Traffic Awareness Department presented a paper on 'Wrong behaviors and their relationship to road traffic crashes',  and Chinese Prof. Shengchuan Zhao, Dean of the College of Engineering, Dalian University of Technology presented his paper on 'The Value of Statistical Life in Road Safety in China'.

Among other speakers included Prof. Meng Li from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China,  Prof. Tom Brijs, Transportation Research Institute of Hasselt University, Belgium and Dr. Wael Alhajyaseen, Qatar Transportation and Traffic Safety Center. They presented papers on 'Development of Urban Traffic Management for Chinese Metropolis', “Road Safety in Flanders (Belgium): Successful Experiences and Lessons Learned from Two Decades of Traffic Safety Research” and “Variable Message Sign Strategies to Accommodate the Heterogeneous Driving Population” respectively.

In the session 'Road Infrastructure', Security Director of South Paris / Ile de France, former Police Officer and Senior Security Advisor for SNCF (French Railway Company) Laurent Berthinier talked about "Doha, Paris, Rail Networks Requiring a Specialized Police Force”, Tareq Abdulhamid Al Emadi, Qatari Ministry of Transport and Communications presented his paper on  Paperless System for the National Traffic Safety Committee.   Other topic discussed included Adopting the Transportation Planning Demands with Qatar National Master Plan and  Implementing Road Safety Audit in Designing.

Under session on Traffic injury prevention, topics included Passenger car safety issues and emergency response: Highlights from MIROS real world investigation studies, Severe road traffic injury patterns and trends for workers in Qatar between 2011-2017, Kids and cars: Child safety and driving in Qatar, Traffic safety engineering and At-Risk road users and probing into driving safety awareness among ambulance service staff in Qatar.

Under session on Road users behavior, various experts from Qatar and abroad discussed on topics included Evidence based policy making for a public health and development problem: WHO’s work on road safety, Current international best practice with particular reference to London and Paris, Influence of drivers behavior on road safety, Measuring pedestrian jaywalking behavior in Qatar and Motorcyclists and edestrians’ safety in Qatar.

In the last two sessions of the conference on road safety and advanced technologies,

First L. Engineer Saud Abdullah Al-Hamad, Traffic Planning Officer from the General Directorate of Traffic presented a paper on “The Strategy of the Traffic Safety Department” and from Ministry of Culture and Sports, Dr. Eissa Saleh Al Hor talked about “Awareness Campaigns and Requirements of the National Road Safety Strategy”, while Dr. Ruben Peralta from Hamad Medical Corporation discussed the subject “Child Restraint Use in Young Children in Qatar: Summary Findings from the YKISS Grant”.

Other speakers were Senior Logistics HSSE Lead from Qatar Shell Eng. Majed Samarah, Dr. Sverker Almqvist and Eng. Gareth Hill from Qatar National Traffic Safety Office and they talked about “Road Safety Journey in Qatar Shell”, “Blackspot Management” and “Road Traffic Collision Investigation and Guidelines: The Way Forward” respectively.

Under session on Traffic Safety Advanced Technologies, Dr. Hamid Menouar from Qatar Mobility Innovations Center presented a paper on “The Role of Connectivity and Automation in Enabling Next Level of Road Safety” and Dr. Jayaseelan Singaravelu from Qatar National Traffic Safety Office talked on the topic “GIS Applications for Land Use Urban Planning”.

Eng. Mark Andrew Cooper of Qatar Public Works Authorities, Dr. Jeff Cheng Lung Lee of Taiwan Police College,  Dr. Abdel Ghani Karkar from Qatar University and Dr. Jeff Cheng Lung Lee from Taiwan Police College spoke on topics included Intelligent Transportation Systems-The Flow of Traffic, VR, AR and 3D Technologies for Strengthening Traffic Education and Safety, A Mobile-based Computer-Vision Outdoor Navigation System for People with Visual Impairment and Applying Wearable Devices and Traffic Cloud in the Traffic Law Enforcement.