The Qatar Transportation and Traffic Safety Center (QTTSC) at CENG recently hosted a workshop on “Road Safety Audit” aimed to provide information on the necessary approaches and tools to develop and evaluate road safety audit.
Organized in collaboration with the International Road Federation (IRF), the workshop brought together around 40 experts from local and regional institutions such as Qatar Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Qatar Petroleum, and Saudi Arabia Ministry of Transportation. They discussed and exchanged their ideas and expertise on issues related to traffic safety audit.
Attendees included CENG Dean Dr Khalifa Al-Khalifa and QTTSC Assistant Professor Dr Wael Alhajyaseen, as well as CENG faculty and staff.
Speakers were IRF Executive Vice-President Mr Michael G Dreznes and Fireseeds North Infrastructure Road Safety and Asset Management Engineer Dr Craig Milligan. They provided an overview on road safety audits and their application to roads and highways in Qatar and beyond, while highlighting the significant role of road safety audits in helping authorities to reduce the number of road accidents and fatalities.
In his remarks, Dr Khalifa Al-Khalifa said: “The event comes in line with CENG’s efforts to raise awareness on the importance of road safety which is considered as one of the College’s key research areas. CENG is committed to strengthening its research collaborations with regional and international governmental and private institutions, and to spreading knowledge on road safety and accidents prevention through a wide range of studies and research that identify the causes of accidents and the critical factors that have an impact on accidents reduction, which ensures the safety and welfare of the people of Qatar.”
Dr Wael Alhajyaseen said: “Preventive risk assessment tools, such as road safety audits and inspections, are an effective and essential instrument to help road authorities reduce the number of crashes and casualties because design standards alone cannot guarantee road safety in all conditions.”