OUTLOOK — By Mohammed Al Rahbi — This kind of red bleeding is different from the red bleeding which indicates the decline in the profit of the business shares. Once the shareholders realise their loss in the market, they immediately grab their mobile phones to make sure how much money they lost!
However, what I’m talking about is a different red colour which is the colour of blood. It is the blood of human beings spread all over the black roads which reflect the number of catastrophic car accidents that happen every day. Such incidents symbolise the picture of the land’s greed in which many bodies have been lying, either died or injured during the accident.
Sometimes, a man carelessly kills his brother, if he didn’t die before him, or he might lying next to him disabled at the hospital. Why does the number of road tragedies increase every day?
People claim that the mobile phone is the reason behind all this tragedy; this device wasted our money and time as well as stole the life of many people who died in car accidents. The mobile phone occupies people’s minds while driving, thus it helped in making cars a tool of killing instead of a means of transport. This is very obvious indeed.
In this regard, what are the punishments for all this? Are there any changes in the rules of Royal Oman Police and the Judiciary to stop this tragedy? It might take much time because the committees concerned are still not sure about their proposals which are were not yet put into effect as if all the people killed in car accidents are enemies. To these committees, it seems that we still have time to take positive action on this issue. Why are there no strict punishments? Why don’t we learn from Europe about the way it deals with such issues to protect people and severely punish all those violate the laws?
Are we afraid of the people’s anger who tend to believe that traffic tickets are a government’s ploy to collect money from the citizens? There should be strict rules to stop all those who violate traffic laws and cause the death of many innocent people or even cause disabilities and serious injuries.
Authorities should impose firm punishments such as putting the violators in jail to protect them from themselves and others as well. People should learn from the experience of others; tickets should be paid within a week for example. Otherwise, they should be charged more if they don’t pay within the week or they should be reported to court if the payment is late.
If such punishments are approved, nobody will dare to utilise his mobile while driving! They will be aware of the direction of thir car. Nobody will think a hundred times before completing his text message while chatting with a friend or a relative. Every driver will be more cautious while driving his car beside other drivers who are more serious in their driving.
Postponing the payment for penalty ticket against overspeeding or other traffic fines until the next year or when renewing the car registration is not really a good way to punish the violators of traffic laws. However, it will not stop the reckless drivers. Authorities should be more serious in this very important issue because some drivers blame the design of roads structure as inappropriate. It is indeed very stupid!
