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Muscat: Driving without a licence adds to accidents in Oman and both parents and authorities have been urged to get tougher on this 'dangerous' practice.
Shaima Murtadha Al Lawati, chief executive officer of Oman Road Safety Association, said she had noticed that some people driving without a licence and had also come to know that the majority of children who get behind the wheel without a licence have the permission of their parents. Speaking to Times of Oman, Al Lawati said that she had met a person who had lost his wife and two children in a car crash caused by a 17-year-old girl driving without a licence. Her parents had given her permission as she had to drop her younger brother somewhere."She could not react properly on the road due to lack of training and experience. The crash resulted in the death of all passengers of the car she hit (the wife and two children) and the girl's own brother as he was sitting on the front seat and without a seatbelt."
It is very dangerous and surely affects the overall safety of road users, she said, adding that studies show that young people are at an increased risk. "This is because of many factors, but I would mention age, inexperience and effect of peer pressure," she said. She also said young and untrained people are more likely to drive without obeying safety rules such as wearing a seatbelt, using their phone while driving, which again brings the probabilities of survival on the roads down to a very low percentage. When contacted by Times of Oman, a source at the Royal Oman Police (ROP) said that they did not consider the issue of driving without a licence a 'very big' matter, and not many such cases had been recorded. According to the ROP, the individuals caught driving without licences are imprisoned for 24 hours and their vehicle is seized. | |||||
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