Official statistics revealed that 20,880 violations were committed by drivers for failing to pay attention while driving and 29,062 violations by drivers for being on their mobile phones in their vehicles in traffic, in the past year, Al Rai daily reported. This was despite the long period where the country was under a curfew that extended for months, during which road use by vehicles dropped significantly, and there was a decrease in registration of violations and traffic accidents.
The Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior for the Traffic and Operations Sectors, Major General Jamal Al-Sayegh, confirmed that there are clear and direct instructions for all traffic and emergency patrols not to tolerate drivers on their phones while driving their vehicles, which endangers their lives and other drives.
Al-Sayegh said in a statement to Al-Rai: “We have more than one way to monitor mobile phone use by drivers, and that extends to catching them with deployed road patrols, or by monitoring them with traffic cameras. In the event that anyone posts a video where he is on social media while driving his vehicle, he is summoned to the station and a violation is issued against him. He will not get away with it. ”
He called on everyone who detects a violation to photograph it and send it to the General Directorate of Traffic via WhatsApp, to provide evidence for the necessary legal measures to be taken.
Al-Sayegh stressed the importance of the new traffic bill that is being discussed in the National Assembly to impose deterrent violations against driving violators, especially since the current violation of the use of the phone by drivers while in traffic is only KD5, and is not a real deterrent, while under the new law, the fine reaches about KD75.