| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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Based on the recommendations from the Traffic Safety Symposium in 2010, the following actions were taken to implement the solutions. The objective was to strengthen the roles of the various stakeholders and cooperation between the parties concerned in the traffic.
a. Public Awareness Programme - Conducted about 255 lectures on road safety awareness, organizing meetings and annual competitions and exhibitions on traffic safety.
b. Safety on road Award - organized annually of cooperation on the between of Sultanate Schools with the ROP and Shell Development Company – Oman, targeting all Omani school community. Competition traffic safety is organized annually with the participation of government, private agencies and NGOs.
c. Road Safety Enhancement – Implemented the Speed Timers System to cover most of the roads in order to adjust the legal speeds limits.
d. Technical inspection of vehicles - carried out in the various governorates of the Sultanate's infrastructure, equipment and buildings and specialized cadres, and aims to reduce accidents caused due to technical malfunctions of vehicles.
e. Expanding the role of Police women – now they are deployed to work as traffic police
f. Document safety on the road in (added in school curriculum about the road Safety) Omani school Curriculum -coordination with the Royal Oman Police and the Ministry of Education, with funding from the Office of Shell Development Oman, and with the help of laboratory research British Transport and circulated at the level of schools Sultanate, and consists of six parts on public safety on the road each subject, according to stages.
g. Expand ambulance services and the primary health care on the roads: geography was expanded ambulance services to most of the roads under the supervision of the Royal Oman Police in various parts of the Sultanate, and work around the clock, and well-equipped, and enhanced cadres Medical with high-level training in order to provide the service ambulatory high quality.
h. Development of traffic circles in the courts: the rehabilitation of cadres of the public prosecutor and judges as a specialty in dealing with traffic accidents and other problems in the traffic.
i. Impose more oversight and control traffic on the roads: configured number of traffic control teams in all governorates of the Sultanate and provide mechanisms and devices that enable them to perform their work.
j. Online Traffic services: website was created specializes in traffic safety under the supervision of General Directorate of Traffic.
k. Cooperation with the Council of Scientific Research: The Coordination Council to adopt a scientific research program (road safety) in collaboration with the British laboratory for Transportation Research.
l. Electronic link with insurance companies: Insurance companies were connected with each other automatically and the Royal Oman Police to see traffic violations to the owner of the vehicle during vehicle insurance pricing insurance policy on this basis , also included data connectivity minor incidents committed by procuring the insurance companies.
m. Review and evaluate the regulations to determine speed on public roads: coordination with the competent authorities to identify and review on the road speed to make it fit with the conditions and the growing changes that arise close to it.
n. Make the roads safer for users of pedestrians: be coordinated with stakeholders’ ways to make pedestrian crossing safer.
o. Construction of roads in accordance with the manual design methods adopted: coordinate with the concerned authorities to raise the level of efficiency and development of engineered roads, the introduction of advanced technologies and the means to make them adapt to the booming traffic.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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The holistic, multi-prong approach adopted by the ROP to reduce Road Traffic Accidents and improve its services indicates that multiple stakeholders at national, regionally and district levels. This means the inclusion of every stakeholder into the programme to play his/her roles together in organised well-researched initiatives in an integrated fashion while addressing road safety holistically. The major stakeholders are the Government sector, the private and corporate sector, the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the community at large. ROP leverages on NGO such as the Oman Road Safety Association ORSA to proliferate road safety management and campaigns especially in engaging the community, the private and corporate sectors as well as other government entities. The ORSA is a non-profit organisation which strives to make driving on roads in Oman the safest in the world.
The community as a stakeholder should be ready to accept the awareness elements imparted through community-based preventive programme and to adopt a proactive and interactive role in these interventions. The role of the private and corporate sector is to fully find and actively participate as well as work closely with the NGOs. Through a closely co-ordinated programme, ROP and its multiple stakeholders will be able to achieve its objective of making roads in Oman safe for all road users.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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Financial resources were not an obstacle as there are always supports from the government which was provided by the Royal Oman Police as well as private entities like Petrol Development Oman (PDO). These private entities incorporate traffic safety activities as part of the corporate social responsibilities returns. The Safety Training Institute provides the trained manpower to implement the holistic traffic safety initiative. Modern technology has also been deployed to assist in carrying out the work, in addition to the safety devices of traffic that is used in the field training. In addition, ROP spent more than OMR 220 million (USD$ 571 million) in the last five years on road improvements to cut down on road accidents and their fatalities.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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a. Support from the highest echelon in the sultanate. HM Sultan Qaboos bin Said approved the 20 recommendations from the Road Safety Symposium which became the blueprint for the national road safety initiative and the pave the way to improve ROP services to the community. To mark the occasion of His Majesty’s address on road safety, October 18 has been designated Annual Traffic Safety Day and a cup and valuable prizes will be awarded to any governorate, region, wilayat, institution or individual initiative which serves to enhance traffic safety. This occasion unites all stakeholders and the community in a unison to make the roads in Oman safe for everyone.
b. Well-planned strategy based on data and statistics drawn up by the National Committee for Road Safety (NCRS), in coordination with all concerned parties to minimise traffic accidents in line with current legislation and international standards.
c. Implementation of immediate measures such as speed management through speed cameras, basic road infrastructure improvements, rumble strips, signs, traffic calming measures, strengthening road traffic violations enforcement capacity, consistent, zero-tolerance enforcement of existing laws and introduction of stiffer penalties for violations, fast-track programme for comprehensive re-training and education of driving instructors, large-scale information campaigns on the major risk factors and priority programme of road safety education for decision makers in all stakeholder institutions
d. Streamlining of ROP processes in handling minor RTA. This eliminates the massive internal procedures relating to minor incidents and reduces traffic jams caused by such minor accidents.
e. The establishment of the Road Accidents Database project under the Road Safety Research Programme is perhaps one of the most important success features of this initiative. This is the first project in the region to link injury data from the Ministry of Health and crash data from Police under a single system for all stakeholders. It aims to give a single, comprehensive, objective view of the road safety situation in Oman to help with planning and the implementation of data-led actions, strategies, policies and research programs in order to reverse the trend of increasing crashes. The project uses the latest in IT, GIS and statistical methods. Known as iMAAP, the database develops effective, evidence-based approaches to reduce the problem of road injuries.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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Since the implementation of this initiative, monitoring and evaluation mechanism was put in place to evaluate the performance and implementation phases, which enabled the plans to be reviewed and revised so as to achieve the objectives. This include regular reviews of the outcome at each phases, feedback from the various stakeholders especially the public. The outcome of each evaluation is properly documented as reports from the National Committee for Road Safety, the Road Traffic Research Committee and ROP. In addition, October 18 has been designated as Annual Traffic Safety Day and the Traffic Safety Competition, so the progresses of all road safety programmes are showcased at the exhibition and the national competition. These ensures the commitment of all stakeholders and their achievements and progress are showcased at the national exhibitions.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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a. Limited resources to carry out ROP’s road safety initiative – need to mobilise the NGOs and private sectors to support the public awareness programme so that ROP could deploy their staff for enforcement and policing work. Through the ORSA and various other NGOs, massive public education and awareness programmes on road traffic are conducted. To reach out to a larger target audience, mainly the youth group, ORSA also reached them through social media network such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. By engaging them in every aspect of their life, at school, at work, at play, the road users are bombarded with the need to adhere to road safety practices while on the road.
b. Oman is a vast country spreading across 309,000 sq Km connected by more than 32,000 km of roads. Monitoring such road infrastructure across a vast land is a constant challenge for the ROP. By leveraging on latest technology such as mobile radar, ROP is now able to cracked down hard on traffic violators especially those who exceed the speed limit, jump traffic signals, cause an accident resulting in the death of, or serious injuries to people, damage to property and those driving under the influence of intoxicants.
c. Engaging multiple stakeholders pose another challenge for the ROP. It involves transformation within the ROP as well as the country as a whole in a large framework because it involved constant communication and interaction with all related parties so that the objectives of the road safety initiative are achieved. Mindset change within the organisation had to change from deep rooted bureaucracy to that of a customer-centric organisation. In addition with a well-planned strategy and a common mission, every stakeholders; government entities, NGOs and the community worked together to make Oman’s road safer for all.
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