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For safer traffic

Nov 23,2015 - Last updated at Nov 23,2015

According to a recent WHO report on road safety across the world, Jordan ranks third among Arab countries in terms of highest number of road accidents and among the first 30 countries worldwide with the highest frequency of road fatalities or injuries.

Thirty-six per cent of the victims are pedestrians, 34 per cent are passengers and 30 per cent are drivers.

These numbers are nothing to be proud of. If anything, Jordanians must view them as alarming and proof that all is not right in the country when it comes to road safety records.

Sadly the numbers do not surprise anyone familiar with the driving habits in the country.

Many of our fellow drivers have still a long way to go before displaying discipline and courtesy on the road.

While speed is one of the main causes of accidents — a factor that can be easily controlled both by drivers and by traffic authorities — there are many other reasons that make the traffic situation in Jordan abysmal.

Whether to start with the drivers’ behaviour, with the infrastructure or with law enforcement is a hard choice.

The roads, in all fairness, were built for a certain population and a reasonable growth rate, while Jordan witnessed wave after wave of newcomers, mostly refugees, which doubled the number of the population in no time, straining the infrastructure and rendering it, in most cases, unable to cope.

The result is the nerve and time consuming traffic jams that make driving around an unpleasant experience.

That and the frequent lack of sidewalks and safe street crossings are part of the factors responsible for traffic accidents.

Enforcement of traffic rules is selective and random, with emphasis placed on speed on highways.

Traffic in intra-urban areas follows the drivers’ moods and instincts, with, as result, chaos and jams.

Swerving lanes at whim and unannounced, smoking, eating, drinking and, the biggest sin of all, talking or texting on the phone, often go unpunished, as go the irritating drivers who push their way from outside lanes, blocking traffic for all, or who take U-turns where clearly forbidden.

The solution is simple: strict enforcement of traffic rules within and outside urban areas, more frequent use of stop signs that are policed regularly and strictly, the absolute prohibition of the use of cellular phones while driving and imposing the use of safety belts.

Children must never be seated on front seats or in the back of pickup trucks, and, above all, speed limits need to be strictly enforced.

 

If all these things are observed, Jordan might start to look safer for people behind the wheel, as well as for pedestrians.

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