Almost Daily Cases of Delivery Rider Accidents Reported in Qatar

Delivery Rider Accidents in Qatar

A boom in door-to-door deliveries amid the Coronavirus pandemic has led to more motorcycle crashes faced by motorcycle delivery drivers (MDDs) on Qatar roads and delivery. Due to the unprecedented rise of these accidents and serious injuries as a result of these accidents, the General Directorate of Traffic organized a workshop titled "Delivery motorcycle accidents" on May 16.

"Delivery requests increased during the corona pandemic and this led to accidents almost daily," said Brigadier Muhammad Radi Al-Hajri, Director of the Traffic Awareness Department at the General Directorate of Traffic.

The Director added that this workshop, in which several entities are participating, including the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI), Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), and Qatar University (QU) aims to discuss the causes of these accidents and proposals from the attending departments and to define the roles of each one in reducing these accidents.

"Through this workshop, we hope to achieve complementary roles between us and other parties to curb this phenomenon,” Brigadier Al Hajri stressed.

According to Dr Aisha Obaid, Assistant Director for Injury Prevention Program at Hamad Medical Corporation, the recent period witnessed an unprecedented rise in motorcycle accidents, which caused serious injuries.

Dr Aisha Obaid added that among the main reasons for these accidents is that they focus on their phone while driving as they use mobile apps for finding the delivery location.

In the first quarter of 2022, the Hamad Trauma Center (HTC) has already treated more than triple the number of delivery riders with serious injuries due to road accidents, when compared to the same period of 2021. The center has provided care to care to 93 cases of motorcycle delivery drivers with serious injuries in the first quarter of 2022 compared to 29 cases during the same period in 2021.

The Trauma Anesthesia Section of HMC has also observed a significant increase in the number of operations to address brain injuries, fractures and even amputations.

In light of these unprecedented statistics on MDD injuries, the Hamad Injury Prevention Program (HIPP) of the HTC is issuing a renewed call to the general public to remind them that the safety of MDDs is the collective responsibility of all road users in Qatar.