DOHA: Over 12,000 school students and parents from youth centres and schools across the northern communities and Doha participated in Ras Laffan Community Outreach Programme’s (COP) road safety initiative ‘Darb Al Salama’.
The initiative supports Qatar National Vision 2030 and aims to improve road safety in northern communities. It is organised in partnership with the Ministry of Interior, Traffic Department, Qatar Red Crescent, and Community Policing Department.
It targets drivers, passengers and pedestrians aged 14-21 years and proven to be successful.
The programme began in the northern communities and was brought to Doha during the 31st GCC Traffic Week, where over 9,000 people participated.
To date it has visited Al Thakhira, Al Khor, Simaisma, Al Shamal and Al Kaaban Youth Centre.
The campaign is one of activities in the months ahead in the northern communities.
Lt Col Ahmad Zayed Al Mohannadi, Director, Community Policing, North Security Department, said, “I am happy to see that initiatives like Darb Al Salama are helping keep our roads safe. Protecting the wellbeing of citizens is the nation’s top priority and by educating our youth, we are helping cultivate a new traffic culture centred on safety.”
The programme uses experiential and computer-based driver education software to help change driving and road safety behaviour, with the long-term vision of reducing fatalities and serious injuries from accidents.
The supporting technology supporting includes ‘Rakkiz Tislam’ programme. Used for the first time in the Middle East, it is a driver learning software module based on a successful young driver scheme in the UK to help young drivers identify and respond to potentially unsafe traffic situations. It was designed and tailored to Qatar’s roads and driving environment and includes traffic scenes filmed on roads.
COP is a consortium that includes Qatar Petroleum, RasGas, Dolphin Energy Limited, Pearl GTL, Oryx GTL, Qatargas, and Gulf Gas. It supports long-term sustainable initiatives in the areas of education, culture, health, environment, security and safety and local programmes in collaboration with cultural institutes, youth centres, NGOs and women associations in the northern communities.
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