Statement of the Secretary and Member of National Committee

Traffic safety is considered one of the most important international indicators for measuring the level of security and safety on roads in countries. Therefore, every country strives to ensure its roads meet the necessary international standards for achieving safety. Since road accidents are one of the most significant problems facing countries worldwide in the field of traffic safety, and the problem becomes more complex with the steady increase in population, horizontal and vertical expansion of cities, and increased road lengths, along with the urban development accompanying these changes, officials are required to develop short-term and long-term plans and programs to address these problems and provide protection for road users.

The State of Qatar, as one of the most developed and advanced countries in various aspects of life, has witnessed a significant urban renaissance in economic constructions, social facilities, urban development, transportation, and roads. This has been accompanied by an increase in the number of vehicles, which has put considerable pressure on traffic flow on roads, leading to traffic accidents that threaten the lives, security, and safety of society. This necessitated that the competent authorities in the state find solutions to these challenges in the short and long term. It was imperative for officials in various state sectors related to traffic safety to prepare ambitious programs, projects, and plans and formulate them into an integrated system (strategy) to provide security and safety for society and protect it from the dangers resulting from road accidents, thereby positioning the state as a leader in traffic safety at the regional and international levels. For this reason, the National Traffic Safety Committee, based on its legal responsibility as the body responsible for setting public traffic policy in the state and its national duties towards protecting society and preserving the human and economic components of the state, initiated the preparation of ambitious projects, programs, and plans, which it formulated into a national traffic safety strategy for the period (2025-2030), following its success in implementing the first version of the strategy (2013-2022), in which the state achieved significant results that placed it in advanced classification positions at the regional and international levels in road safety.

Since its establishment in 2010, the National Traffic Safety Committee, chaired by His Excellency the Minister of Interior, has made great efforts to improve the level of traffic safety, placing road safety at the forefront of its priorities. To achieve this goal, it prepared the first national traffic safety strategy in the state, involving various state sectors concerned with traffic safety in its preparation and implementation. This was a comprehensive sectoral strategy implemented during the period from 2013 to 2022, which achieved significant results exceeding expectations. Through this, Qatar was able to reduce the road accident fatality rate from 13 deaths per hundred thousand in 2013 to 4.5 deaths per hundred thousand in 2022. The committee did not stop there but also focused on long-term awareness, cooperating with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to prepare the general educational framework for traffic safety for all educational stages, from kindergarten to secondary school. This framework was circulated in all schools in the state, a program aimed at spreading traffic awareness among society from an early age to build an aware society that assumes its responsibilities in preserving the human and economic components of its state. The committee also worked with its partners in all sectors concerned with road safety to build a developed road network that meets the highest traffic safety standards, in addition to developing traffic legislation and laws, as well to awareness programs undertaken by various media outlets in the state. The committee continues its efforts to improve the level of road safety and achieve the highest traffic safety standards.

The success of Qatar in building advanced road networks that meet the highest safety standards has helped provide a suitable environment for establishing an integrated transportation system that enjoys security and traffic safety, especially the metro project, which brought about a qualitative leap in this system in the state, positively reflecting on the security and safety of citizens. This has led to the State of Qatar being placed among the global countries with a distinguished position in traffic safety, where its fatality rate is much lower than that of some other countries. These results would not have been achieved without the great renaissance the state witnessed in all facilities, especially the infrastructure projects that were implemented, including urban planning, building modern cities, and designing advanced road networks.

Despite the advanced results achieved by the State of Qatar in traffic safety, it still aspires to achieve more in reducing road accidents by 2030, the end date of the second phase of its national traffic safety strategy. The committee's work was not limited to policy-making but extended to include its management and monitoring of implementation with concerned parties through technical working groups responsible for implementation, in addition to seeking technical consultations from international experts. As a result of this expertise available to the committee, it has been able to manage traffic safety in the state in a way that has earned it international praise, and thanks to this distinguished management, the National Traffic Safety Committee has won several international awards in the field of traffic safety management from the most prestigious international institutions in this field. Its receipt of these awards is an appreciation for its efforts in achieving road safety.

This progress achieved by the State of Qatar did not come from nothing but was the result of determination, persistence, conviction, and attention translated into practical reality through executive action plans undertaken by all public and private state institutions and its community forces. This progress is the primary driver for achieving the same result in the second Decade of Action for Road Safety of the United Nations, which the committee transformed into executive action plans included in the second version of the National Traffic Safety Strategy, which the concerned authorities will begin implementing during the period 2025-2030.

The State of Qatar, sensing its responsibility to preserve its human and economic resources as a fundamental pillar for its growth and development, has taken advanced steps in achieving road safety and has given it great attention, represented by the establishment of a National Traffic Safety Committee chaired by His Excellency the Minister of Interior as a leading institution in this field and a practical application of the sustainable development plan in which the United Nations called on countries to establish specialized road safety agencies. This is what the committee is currently doing in cooperation with all its partners to achieve the vision of the supreme leadership in the state aimed at placing the State of Qatar among the developed countries economically, socially, and securely at all local, regional, and international levels.

Brigadier Dr. Mohammed Radi Al-Hajri

Secretary and Member of the National Traffic Safety Committee