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Kuwait – A new book will be released shortly to address the numerous problems that occur on roads in Kuwait, an NGO official said. It will also detail many aspects of the negative behavior exhibited by drivers on Kuwaiti roads.

The NGO representative said that the average number of people that die in road accidents amount to one person every day, and that the number of accidents taking place in the country has reduced during the last few years due to the increase in traffic jams that limit speed. Adel Butaiban, Secretary of Kuwait Society for Traffic Safety said that among the most important factors that cause accidents is a lack of awareness.

We witness this everywhere in Kuwait, be it in the way people decide to neglect the bridge and cross the highways by foot, or in the way people overlook important regular maintenance to be done for their cars, or even in the way they handle their kids in the car,” he said.

Butaiban explained that some drivers place their young children on their laps while driving, which ultimately accords the child the role of airbag in case accidents occur, “We have seen examples of that in other countries, where people have survived but lost their children because they seated children on their laps while driving. If one wants to protect his children, he should seat them in the back seat, not in front of him,” he noted.

The NGO representative added that among the other negative behaviors that cause accidents in Kuwait is ‘accident watching’. “In the book named ‘Road Behavior’ that we plan to publish in the upcoming few weeks we address this rather important issue; sometimes a minor accident happens. When cars start slowing down to ‘watch the accident,’ more serious accidents take place,” Butaiban said. He noted that on one occasion, an accident in which material damages not exceeding KD 100 took place. When one man slow
ed down to watch it, he was hit by the car that was in queue behind him and he lost his life. “The first accident is nothing compared to the one that was caused by watching it. Is it really worth risking death to watch two cars caught up in accident?” he asked.

The Kuwait Society for Traffic Safety was established in 1982, and it works in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior’s Traffic Department. Among the numerous activities held, it organizes regular visits to schools to increase awareness among young students about road hazards. “We need to start with the young generation. This is because for some adults, it is a bit too late to learn,” said Butaiban.

According to him, the best way to help adults comply with traffic laws is by making it more attractive for them to do so, “If you build one bridge, six-meters high, at a distance of every one kilometer and expect people to walk all the way to it, and climb it to cross the road you will be mistaking,” he said. He explained, “Rather than doing so, we shade these bridges by air-conditioning them, and introduce escalators so that people do not feel lazy to go up. This way, you will attract more people to com
ply with the law. It has to be attractive, otherwise people will simply not do it,” he concluded.

Ahmad Saeid – Kuwait Times