Rise in expat deaths due to traffic accidents in Oman

Muscat: Expatriate death rates due to traffic accidents rose between the beginning of this year and August-end, compared with the same period last year, data from the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) revealed.
NCSI’s monthly bulletin for September 2016 showed that 168 people died due to traffic accidents between January 2016 and August 2016, up from 148 during the same period last year.
There was a 60 per cent spike recorded in female expats’ death rate to 24 deaths by the end of August, compared with 15 last year. Male expat deaths also reflected an 8 per cent rise to 144 deaths by the end of August, compared with 133 during the same period in 2015.
However, Omani death rates decreased by 3 per cent until the end of August to 291, down from 300 a year ago. During August alone, 58 deaths were registered, compared with 65 in July and 72 in June of this year.
Fortunately, accident rates have steadily fallen so far this year, compared with last year, where a drop of 38.2 per cent was recorded. By the end of August 2016, a total of 2,759 accident cases had been registered, down from 4,465 during the same period last year.
Injuries have also decreased by 24.9 per cent, compared with the January to August 2015 period, where 1,931 injuries were recorded by the end of August, compared with 2,571 during the same period last year.
In August, 24.2 per cent of accidents occurred in the Muscat Governorate, followed by 21.8 per cent in the South Al Batinah Governorate. 16 per cent were recorded in the South Al Sharqiyah Governorate, while 11 per cent of traffic accidents were recorded in the A’Dhahira Governorate.
27 per cent of accidents were spread over the remaining governorates.