While speeding was the most common cause of road accidents, 58 percent of the mishaps occurred outside city boundaries. Photo by – ONA
Muscat: A tangible improvement in road safety indicators in the Sultanate of Oman over the past five years (2017-2021) is reflected in the latest statistics issued by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
A fall in the number of road accidents, an increase in length of roads and a rise in the number of vehicles are some of the main takeaways from the new set of road traffic data.
According to the NCSI, the number of road accidents in Oman dropped by 60 percent over the past five years (2017-2021), down from 3,845 (or the equivalent of 1 road accident per 3 hours by the end of 2017) to 1,539 accidents (1 accident per 6 hours by the end of 2021).
During the above mentioned period, the road accidents left 1,621 people injured and 434 dead. Omanis constituted 76 percent of the injured and 66 percent of the dead at the end of 2021.
Speeding was cited as the most common cause of road accidents (53.3 percent accounting for 820 accidents), while collisions topped the list of ‘types’ of road accidents (41.1 percent ).
Data shows that most accidents (58 percent) in the Sultanate of Oman occur outside the boundary of cities and that accidents along straight roads accounted for 51 percent of the total number of accidents, of which 809 happened in the night and 730 in the daytime.
Statistics show that the number of vehicles registered in Oman in 2021 stood at 1,553,000 (1.55 million), down by 0.3 percent as against 2020. Private vehicles constituted 79.4 percent of the total number of vehicles registered in Oman.
-With ONA inputs
