Qatar- Road safety ambassadors honoured
Date
5/16/2016 9:50:10 PM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Road Safety Ambassadors at the honouring ceremony at Qatar University Library Building yesterday. Pic: Baher A / The Peninsula
By Sanaullah Ataullah
DOHA: Ambassadors for road safety have been honoured for convincing their schoolmates who are young motorists to comply with traffic safety rules.
“I observed the students became easily ready to listen to the advice of their classmates or other students of their age compared to those given by teachers,” said Ambassador for Road Safety Saqar Abdullah from Hamad Bin Abdullah Bin Jassim Secondary Independent School for Boys.
“The youngsters have a craze for reckless driving, especially speeding and racing, endangering their lives and those of others.
“During my campaign for traffic awareness in our school, I found a student with dare-devil driving. It was very difficult to stop him. I interacted several times with him, once with my supervisor. Finally, I took a picture with him and he agreed to give up the bad practice.”
“Some 50 percent students of final year of secondary schools are motorists and are likely to violate traffic rules.
“In this case, the school traffic awareness programme through student to student interaction played a key role in making them follow traffic rules. We asked them politely to give up their bad habits and explained to them the repercussions of reckless driving.
“We took some students especially those in the habit of crazy driving to the accident ward in a hospital,” said Abdullah.
“We used heart-touching words to convince the students. We told them that their parents are waiting at homes. Now it depends on them — opt for safety to reach home or go to hospital,” said another ambassador.
The ambassadors were sharing their experiences about traffic awareness programme in schools in a ceremony at Qatar University yesterday, where the best schools participating in the Traffic Safety Ambassador Initiative were honoured.
Doha Independent School for boys bagged the first prize, followed by Hamad Bin Abdullah Secondary School for Boys in the second and Al Wakra Secondary School for Boys and Mohammad Bin Abdul Aziz Al Mana Secondary School for Boys shared the third prize.
The initiative was launched by Qatar Transportation and Traffic Safety Centre (TTSC) (previously known as Qatar Road Safety Studies Centre (QRSSC) in the beginning of this academic year.
“This year 18 Independent schools for boys participated in the initiative. We expect more schools to join next year,” said a senior official.
“We focus on boys because studies suggest that boys were found indulged in traffic violations more than girls.
“We plan to make a separate section at our department to bring all initiatives of traffic safety to schools under one umbrella,” said Dr Abdul Aziz Ali Saadi, Head,Health and Safety Department at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
The Peninsula