‘425 traffic accidents recorded in first three months of 2016’

AMMAN — Around 425 road accidents were recorded in the first quarter (Q1) of the current year, which is within the “normal rate”, a Central Traffic Department source said on Monday.

“The accident that killed 17 Palestinian pilgrims [in Maan] last month and the seven Egyptian citizens who died on the Mafraq road were the most serious, recording the highest numbers of deaths and injuries,” the department’s director, Col. Yaser Harahsheh, said.

Harahsheh told The Jordan Times the accidents in the first quarter of 2016 registered some 163 deaths.

He said 172 people died in road accidents during the first three months of 2015, noting that the drop is a “good sign” of the traffic situation in Jordan.

Accidents occur due to “human mistakes”, Harahsheh explained, adding that many incidents could have been avoided if motorists had paid more attention to the road and abided by traffic rules.

In 2015, the accidents, deaths and injuries recorded in Jordan were lower in number than those that occurred in 2014, according to the official.

“In the first quarter of 2015, there were around 431 accidents registered at the traffic department,” he continued.

The lower number of road accidents recorded in the first three months of the current year is an indicator of a “higher level of awareness” for Jordanians and a better road monitoring system, the official added.

Harahsheh said nearly 80 per cent of road accidents in the first quarter of 2016 occurred on “external routes” including the desert highway, the Dead Sea’s Adassiyeh Road, the Irbid-Amman route, and the Azraq and Zarqa roads.

He added that the department is cooperating with the Public Works Ministry to revamp several streets around the Kingdom, including back roads, in addition to setting “firmer regulations” for traffic violations within the upcoming few months.

The total number of accidents recorded in 2015 was around 10,600, where 608 people were killed and nearly 16,800 were injured, according to the department.

“Despite the increasing number of licensed motorists and cars, in addition to the expected increase in vehicles during summer holidays, official figures show that we are on the right track,” the source said.

On Monday, three died and 28 people were injured in road accidents across the Kingdom, according to the Civil Defence Department (CDD).

One person died and two were injured in a collision involving a truck and a small vehicle in Mafraq, while a man in his 70s died and one person was injured when a vehicle overturned in Faqou area in Karak.

Also in Faqou, one young man died and another was injured in a traffic collision.  

In Amman’s Marka area, a two-vehicle collision resulted in five injuries, while in Madaba, four people were injured in another two-vehicle collision on Maeen road.

In Tafileh, five people were injured in a two-vehicle collision.

In the evening, 10 people were injured in Ajloun’s Anjara area when a school bus overturned and hit a house.

CDD personnel took all the injured to nearby hospitals, where they were listed in fair condition.