Every day, more than 500 children die in traffic accidents globally, while thousands are injured. With kids the focus of the Third UN Global Road Safety Week starting on May 4, Y looks at whether Oman is protecting our young ones on the roads
Report: Kate Ginn
This is the story of Azzan. His father, Ahmed al Shukily, is the narrator.
“Azzan is my oldest son. He was a happy and smiley kid. Within the whole family everyone loved him.
“Everyone used to say ‘he is older than his age’ in terms of the way he talks. The thing that attracted everyone was Azzan’s questions. He was a smart kid; he always asks, ‘What is that, dad?’, ‘What is that, uncle?’
“I remember I was in a meeting when I received a call from his uncle. He said ‘Azzan is injured. He fell down from the car’.
“I asked him what happened to him. He said, ‘La Ellah Ella Allah Mohamadan Rasool Allah [There is no God save Allah and Muhammed is His Prophet]’.
“It was a shock and I knew Azzan was chosen by Allah and he passed away. It is difficult when you lose a loved one. You were waiting for him to grow up. It was not easy for me.
“Everyone was trying to calm me down, but I just wanted to see my son.
“On the day of the accident, Azzan asked him mum to take him to the grocery store, which is only 400 metres away. He had bought some stuff while on the way to school and he forgot to return 100 or 200 baisa and as soon as he got home, he asked his mum to take him back to return the remaining money.
“His mum said later, but he insisted that they go and return the money. On the way back, just close to the house, while the car is turning, the door opened – how, we don’t know – and he fell down in the road and hit his head.
“I would like to say: Parents, please make your children safe. Even if the distance is short from your house, keep your children safe in car seats and fasten their seatbelts. Your children are your life.
“You can lose a property and you can lose money, but losing your own child will create a pain that will last forever. You will see them everywhere, at a picnic, within your family. Their picture will never vanish.”
During the telling of his story, Ahmed breaks down often and cries for the son he has lost, the man he would have become and the grandchildren that he will now never see.
The hard-hitting video featuring Azzan’s story was part of the “Tell a Friend” national road safety campaign, originally launched in February 2013 and backed by Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).
The five-year initiative, which is still ongoing, aims to lower the number of road accidents in the Sultanate, targeting areas such as speed and seat belt usage.
Ahmed’s son Azzan was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident, a simple device that would have saved his life.
Fast-forward two years and the emotive video is still as relevant as it was then, with nothing much changed, despite high-profile road safety campaigns by several organisations and a push by Y for legislation to make car seats compulsory in the Sultanate for children under the age of six.
With the Third UN Global Road Safety Week starting on May 4 under the theme of #SaveKidsLives, the spotlight is being shone on United Nations member states, of which Oman is one, to assess their track record on child road safety and provisions put in place to protect their younger generations.
So is the Sultanate on the right road in this area or heading down a cul de sac?
Just this week, the Royal Oman Police (ROP) is reportedly preparing to get tough on bad drivers with harsher penalties and heavier fines for traffic offences as part of a new traffic law.
This has to be a two-pronged approach – educating parents and also the drivers on the roads who cause the accidents.
Reckless drivers will face jail terms ranging from 10 days to three months along with a fine of up to RO500, according to a local newspaper.
Similar punishments await those who speed, overtake dangerously, drive on hard shoulders or use mobile phones while driving.
“The new law will rein in offenders who show complete disregard for traffic rules,” Hamed al Wahaibi, former international rally champion and founder of Safety First, Oman’s leading independent community road safety organisation, told the newspaper.
“If the number of traffic violations is brought down, instances of injuries and deaths will be reduced accordingly.”
The number of traffic violations during 2014 was 6,015,323, a staggering increase of more than 64 per cent compared with 2013, according to information released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information on Sunday (April 26). This could be down to more offenders or increased vigilance by police, who are stepping up traffic patrols and their presence on the roads, or a combination of both.
More encouraging were the figures showing that road accidents up to March this year (1,275) have dropped by 20.8 per cent compared with the same period last year.
Less people lost their lives on the roads, with 816 deaths in 2014, down from 913 in the previous year. This is good news, but it still means that an average of 15 people lost their lives every week in 2014 on the roads or due to traffic accidents.
And the fact remains that there is still no legal protection for children in Oman. Regular drivers will be familiar with the sight of unrestrained children jumping around back seats and babies held in their mothers’ arms in the passenger seat.
According to ROP statistics from 2012, accidents claimed the lives of 122 children aged between 0 and 16 years old and injured 1,510. It means that there are many more stories like Ahmed al Shukily’s, and many more children like his son, Azzan, who have lost their lives or suffered life-changing injuries.
Speaking in November last year on World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, a ROP official said: “We urge parents and caretakers to keep a watch on children’s behaviour in vehicles.
“The importance of using seat belts should not be underestimated.”
Which is all well and good, but road safety campaigners stress that such messages must be backed by legislation requiring parents to protect their children on the roads. Merely asking or “encouraging” citizens to act as responsible drivers is not enough.
“I think it is the time to stop killing innocent people due to recklessness and flexible legislation or implementation of some,” says Shaima Murtadha al Lawati, chief executive officer of Oman Road Safety Association (ORSA), a non-governmental organisation founded in partnership with Shell Development Oman.
“We urge the authorities to upgrade the current law to include the use of child seats and safety belt in the rear seat and helmet for cyclists and the presence of a points system for offenders. The legislation must keep pace with the rapid developments that occur in the community.”
Bernadette Bhacker-Millard, a lawyer and road safety professional who founded the Salim and Salimah initiative more than 10 years ago to educate parents on the benefits of seat belts, says: “In Oman, there is scarcely a family that has not been affected by the death of a loved one in a road accident.
“Approximately one in five victims is a child or a young man who has died in a car or while walking across roads. Their lives have been cut short by the negligence of a driver. Sadly, many of these deaths are preventable.”
Other countries have reduced the death toll and serious injuries among children and young people by enforcing laws mandating the use of child safety seats and seat belts for older children, and Oman should follow suit, believes Bhacker-Millard.
The evidence is certainly there to back up these calls. In a crash, a properly fitted child safety seat reduces the risk of death or injury to a baby or small child by as much as 75 per cent. For an older child, a seat belt cuts the risk by more than 50 per cent.
“In all cases, this is the difference between life and death,” says Bhacker-Millard.
Targeting the drivers who cause accidents is also vital to bring statistics down.
Young Omanis aged 16 to 25 years old make up around 20 per cent of the Omani population, yet these young drivers account for over 31 per cent of road accident related fatalities and more than 31 per cent of injuries, according to an article by Hamed al Reesi and Abdullah al Maniri published in the Oman Medical Journal (OMJ) in September last year.
“Current research is starting to uncover the seminal role of parents as both a role model and influence in promoting safe driving behaviour,” said the OMJ article.
In other words, children will “copy” or learn driving behaviour and habits from their parents. The influence of peers is also being looked into.
The UN’s #SaveKidsLives campaign is calling for people around the world to pledge for change by signing a declaration calling for decision makers to save kids’ lives by putting road safety measures in place.
Already, more than 50,000 people from all over the world have given their support, standing side-by-side in a united global call for action that is gaining momentum by the day.
Efforts are also gathering pace in Oman. Last year, ORSA launched a “Buckle Up” campaign, sponsored by BP Oman, to raise awareness of the importance of seat belts and child restraints.
By the end of 2014, the message had reached 5,000 students and teachers in Oman, communicating three main messages: every person in should buckle up on every trip; children below 12 must be seated in back seats with proper child restraints; and there are four types of child restraints depending on the child’s weight, height and age.
“From our experience and talking to many young and older people, we came to learn that many people don’t necessarily know these tips,” says al Lawati.
In February this year, ORSA donated more than 200 child restraints for newborns in Oman, to be distributed through government hospitals throughout the year.
Education is also key, with parents receiving help and advice.
Road safety campaigners are working hard in Oman and the ROP is also doing its best. The will to change is there. It now needs a coordinated approach with decision makers in every field in Oman, including government and private sectors, to put child safety at the top of the road traffic agenda.
Sadly, it is too late for Azzan and hundreds more children, but not yet for future generations.
At the end of the Tell A Friend video, Azzan’s father Ahmed al Shukily is seen strapping his youngest son, Mohammed, into a car seat before driving off.
* Watch the full video of Azzan’s story here.
A Victim’s Story: A Life Changed in Seconds
Behind each statistic is a human tragedy, a story of pain and suffering and the struggle to put back together a shattered life.
Ahmed al Badi was injured in a car accident at a young age, which left him confined to a wheelchair.
“I was sitting in the back and the driver and another passenger were in the front,” he says. “The driver wanted to overtake the car in front, but as he was overtaking, our car hit something on the ground.
“It was a hard collision and all of us were thrown upside down in the car. I found myself flying through the air and I smashed myself on the car roof or some other hard part of the car.
“The next thing I knew, I was lying with blood pouring out of me, so much blood that I couldn’t open my eyes.
“People gathered round and opened the door. I heard them say ‘Get the dead one out first.’ They saw me lying motionless with my eyes closed covered in blood and thought I was dead, so they dragged me out.”
What the rescuers didn’t know was that Ahmed had broken his neck and moving him could make the situation worse.
“They way they did it of course, they didn’t mean to hurt me, the important thing to them was to get this person out and to a hospital,” he says.
“The pain was unbearable. I had suffered a pretty hard blow to the head. It broke my neck but thank God it didn’t cause any brain damage.”
Ahmed, who comes from the Saham area in Al Batinah region, was left unable to walk and now uses an electric wheelchair.
“Of course, I go over and over what happened in my mind. What will become of me? What can I do? I had so many things that I wanted to do with my life. You cannot understand something like this until you live it yourself.
“It is hard as well for my mother and family. As the eldest, I was supposed to provide for the family, to take the place of my father. They were all relying on me but then this happened.”
*Source: salimandsalimah.org
In Numbers
– 60 per cent of all child deaths in Oman occur in car crashes
– The risk of a child dying on Oman’s roads is around 42 times that of a child dying on the roads of the UK
– In a crash at only 50kph, an infant is likely to be violently catapulted out of the mother’s arms hitting the dashboard or windscreen, the equivalent force of dropping him or her from the fourth floor of an apartment block
– If a child is seated in the back when the car crashes, he or she will hit the seat in front with a force of 30 times his or her body weight
– 19 rials is the cost of one of the cheaper child car seats in Oman, while 35 rials will buy a better one that complies to safety standards
– 2011 is the year that the UAE introduced legislation making it compulsory for parents to buckle up children under the age of six in a car
– Since 2000, nearly 10,000 men, women and children have lost their lives in crashes in Oman and more than 110,000 have been injured, many disabled for life
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