Driving a vehicle over and above the permissible speed limits has been the main reason behind many of the road accidents in Oman, according to the Traffic Department at the Royal Oman Police (ROP).
Although other reasons like multitasking, use of mobile phones, reckless driving and others are some of the reasons behind the number of accidents, a passion for speed has been found to be the main culprit behind road accidents and casualties.
"Speed has been the reason for nearly 198 of the 371 deaths from road accidents reported in 2020, followed by multitasking, reckless driving and others," a source from the department told the Observer.
Other reasons like reckless driving which has led to 226 accidents, while negligence resulted in 206 cases. Failure to wear seat belt increased the risk from accidents,
while as many as 40 accidents were due to vehicle defects. Wrong overtaking resulted in 30 accidents, while other reasons contributed to 49 accidents.
Over the past four years, the number of road accidents in Oman has reduced substantially, thanks to the efforts of the government as well as the NGOs. From 4,721 accidents in 2016 (1 accident every 2 hours on an average), accidents fell to 1,341 in 2020 (1 accident every 6 hours on an average), according to the data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Nonetheless, the number of accidents is showing a proportionate increase with the surge in traffic on Muscat-Salalah road during the khareef season as the case was, until some years ago.
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