Road accidents dip 37% in Oman

Muscat: Oman reported considerably fewer road accidents in the first half of 2016, with cases plunging 37 per cent to 2,100, as against 3,334 traffic accidents during the same period last year.
However, while injuries declined by 23.3 per cent, traffic related fatalities went up by 8.4 per cent, according to the latest bulletin released by the National
Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Significantly, 55 per cent of the road accidents reported in June occurred at night.
Further, Muscat Governorate recorded the highest number of accidents in June, with as many as 27 per cent of all road accidents, followed by South Al Batinah (12.4 per cent) and A’Dhahirah (11.3 per cent). During the first six months of 2016, 1,410 injuries were reported, as against last year’s 1,838 injuries.
Number of injured
Among the injured, 1,071 were Omanis, which included 255 females. This represented a decline of 23.6 per cent among Omanis. Additionally, incidents of females being injured decreased by 34.4 per cent, while male injuries fell by 19.4 per cent in the January-June period.
On the other hand, the number of injured expats fell 22.2 per cent during the period, compared with figures for 2015. Of the 339 expats who suffered injuries in road accidents, 34 were females. Male injuries declined by 19.5 per cent, while female injuries fell by
40.4 per cent.
Meanwhile, fatalities on roads increased to 336 during the first half of 2016, as against 310 deaths reported last year.
Deaths among Omanis increased 4.3 per cent to 219, while expats involved in fatal accidents rose 17 per cent to 117 during the period.
While the number of Omani males who lost their lives in road accidents increased 5.7 per cent to 184, Omani female deaths went down 2.8 per cent to 35.
In comparison, both male and female fatalities among expatriates increased during the period. Male deaths rose by 11 per cent to 101, while female deaths went up as much as 78 per cent to 16.
Last year, 675 traffic-related deaths were reported, involving 458 Omanis and 217 expatriates. Injuries in 2015 numbered 3,624, involving 2,673 Omanis and 861 expatriates.