Maersk Oil Qatar, the country’s largest offshore oil producer and Vodafone Qatar have come together to help address one of Qatar’s most pressing challenges – road safety. Hundreds of students at Park House English School in Doha have benefitted from a week-long road safety event, featuring one-to-one coaching and a state-of-the-art road safety simulator, that sought to highlight positive road behaviours among young people.

Road accidents are fast becoming a global epidemic, according to the United Nations, with 1.3 million people losing their lives and 50 million others seriously injured each year on roads. 

The road safety event at Park House English School drew on Maersk Oil Qatar’s and the General Directorate for Traffic’s successful Students for Road Safety programme that seeks to transform young people into ambassadors for safe road behaviour. Students were given one-to-one coaching in the Students for Road Safety simulator that uses an artificial intelligence engine to recreate common mistakes made by drivers in Doha, such as tail-gating, failure to indicate, flashing lights and cutting across lanes at roundabouts.

Sheikh Faisal bin Fahad Al-Thani, Deputy Managing Director of Maersk Oil Qatar, said: “I am delighted that Vodafone Qatar has joined with Maersk Oil Qatar in highlighting how relatively simple, positive behaviour on the road can help avoid unnecessary injuries and fatalities. The recent visit to Park House English School is a fantastic example that by working together in an efficient way, we can help make a meaningful difference to the lives of people in Qatar.”

During the event, Vodafone Qatar outlined practical steps that students can take to improve road safety with iPads featuring an educational road safety app that outlined a set of “absolute road rules”.  

Mr. Kyle Whitehill, Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Qatar, said: “We’re very pleased to partner with Maersk Oil in tackling road safety awareness because this an issue requires a contribution from everyone. Road safety is a topic that is strongly embedded in our workplace culture, where Vodafone staff across the world live by seven absolute health and safety rules including in their driving behaviour. By working together and bringing the best resources to support the campaign, we can all do our part to encourage future drivers to become road safety ambassadors and make Qatar’s roads safer.”

Students for Road Safety is a collaborative effort between Maersk Oil Qatar and the Ministry of the Interior’s Traffic Department, under the One Second! national road safety umbrella, it seeks to instill a responsible mindset among Qatar’s youth to develop a positive road safety culture, transforming 12 to 18-year old students into road safety ambassadors. In 2014, 2200 students and young adults benefited from the programme, gaining experience in the driving simulator training and learning from interactive presentations delivered by Students for Road Safety instructors.