Improving Road Safety
in the OIC Member States
162
Pillar 2: Roads and mobility
Urbanisation in Oman occurred rapidly in the 21 st century, changing the distribution of the
population with intensive migration from remote rural areas to more developed urban areas
(Plankermann, 2013). This has placed urban infrastructure under intense pressure, particularly
transport infrastructure. Overall road construction programs have increased in the last twenty
years. This resulted in an increase of paved roads by more than 25.000 kilometres (Mazharul
Islam & Al Hadhrami, 2012). Most of the major urban roads are now dual carriage roads, well
equipped with signals, traffic signs and also lighting. However, travel between cities, especially
at night, may be dangerous because of poor/no lightning, wandering livestock, pedestrians
crossing highways, slow moving cargo vehicles and speeding drivers (OSAC Country Council
Information, 2014c).
The study of Siham Gaber Farag of 2014 shows the distribution of injury and non-injury crashes
over the months in 2010 vary throughout the year. The high number of crashes between July
and September can be caused by the tourist season andmonsoons. This period of intense rainfall
can wash out roadways and make road markings less visible (OSAC Country Council
Information, 2014c; Plankermann, 2013; SihamGaber Farag, IbrahimH. Hashim& El-Hamrawy.,
2014).
Most of the accidents happen during the day between 9.00 and 16.00 and 17.00 and 20.00,
typical for peak hours with people travelling to and from work. Thursday, which is weekday
holiday in Oman, has the highest frequency of crashes. This has to do with people visiting family
and friends, the abundance of private cars and the overloading of the road network which often
leads to fatal accidents (Mazharul Islam & Al Hadhrami, 2012).
Pillar 3: Vehicles
According to the WHO there are no vehicle standards applied to vehicles using public roads in
Oman (World Health Organisation, 2015b). There are no legislated frontal impact standards,
electronic stability control and pedestrian protection standards in force. However, periodic
vehicle maintenance is mandatory in Oman and vehicles must meet local standards.
The study of M. Mazharul Islam et al. indicates that over the period 2000 to 2009, the population
of Oman increased by about 2,0% per annum, while the automobile fleet in the country
increased by 4,3% per annum. Over the same period, the registration of newmotorised vehicles
increased by 10% per annum. The increase in private cars and shared private taxi services is
caused by the unavailability of a good railway network, water-ways or bus services. Thus, the
excessive dependence on private cars leads to heavy traffic, a large number of accidents,
degradation of urban environment and high individual expenditure on transport.
Private cars are involved in 77% of all road crashes according to Siham Gaber Farag. However,
since motorized 4-wheeled vehicles account for 84% of the total vehicle fleet (WHO report
2015), it is no coincidence that private cars are involved in most road accidents.