Qatar road accidents kill 226 in 2010

Road accidents killed 226 people in Qatar in 2010, lower by a meager 0.9 per cent over the 2009 casualties, newspapers in the Gulf country reported on Thursday.

Around 4.447 people were also injured in the mishaps, caused mainly by reckless driving and other traffic violations, the papers said, quoting Brigadier Mohammed Al Kharji, director of the traffic police department in Qatar.

He said the number of injuries was lower by around 5.2 per cent compared with 2009, adding that they included 552 serious injuries in 2010. “As for deaths last year, November was the worst month in terms of road accidents as 41 people died during that month.”

His figures showed recorded traffic violations in 2010 soared by nearly 32.7 per cent over the previous year and that excess speed and jumping the red lights accounted for over 40 per cent of the total offences.

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