As part of its campaign to reduce pedestrian traffic accidents, the General Directorate of Traffic yesterday distributed reflective safety vests among workers at Corniche also educating them on how to cross roads from designated places.

The campaign launched yesterday at the Corniche is part of ‘Accident-free Summer’ awareness campaign  by the Ministry of interior recently, the traffic department said on its official Twitter account.

The awareness campaign primarily targeted workers educating them on the importance of crossing road from designated places to save their lives and avoid fines of violating traffic rules.

The Traffic Department will start recording violations of traffic rules by pedestrians from August 1, 2019 and will impose a fine of up to QR500 depending on the type of offence.

Many entities from the Traffic Department participated in the event including traffic awareness department, patrols department and investigation department.

According to the recently released statistics by the General Directorate of Traffic, 32 people died due to run-over accidents in 2011 and then the number declined in following years. It reached to 24 in 2014. Again the number of pedestrians’ deaths started increasing gradually touching 32 in 2017.

The Traffic Department initiatives meant to decrease number of pedestrian accident deaths, include installing lights in dark places and speed humps and distributing reflective bracelets to pedestrians especially in the Industrial Area.

The areas which recorded more pedestrian accidents include Madinat Khalifa followed by Al Rayyan, Al Maamoura, Old Airport and Industrial Area.

The officers participated in the awareness event yesterday at Corniche stressed that the pedestrians should use crosswalks or footbridges to cross the road while motorists are obliged to respect rights of the pedestrians to cross safely even in the absence of a traffic signal and in the internal roads.

According to article 61 of law No. 17/2007 regarding the traffic law anyone intending to cross the carriageway shall do so with caution, and shall first ensure that the place chosen does not expose them to any danger or cause obstruction to traffic.