International Journal of Injury Control and Safety

Promotion

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/nics20

Road safety status during COVID-19 pandemic:

exploring public and road safety expert’s opinions

Wael K. M. Alhajyaseen, Abdulkarim Almukdad, Qinaat Hussain, Mustafa

Almallah, Mohammed Abdullah Al Malki, Jayaseelan Singaravelu & Susanna
Zammataro

To cite this article: Wael K. M. Alhajyaseen, Abdulkarim Almukdad, Qinaat Hussain, Mustafa
Almallah, Mohammed Abdullah Al Malki, Jayaseelan Singaravelu & Susanna Zammataro (2022)
Road safety status during COVID-19 pandemic: exploring public and road safety expert’s
opinions, International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, 29:2, 135-151, DOI:
10.1080/17457300.2021.1962915

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/17457300.2021.1962915

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa Published online: 16 Aug 2021.

UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis
Group.

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International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion
2022, VOL. 29, NO. 2, 135–151
https://doi.org/10.1080/17457300.2021.1962915

Road safety status during COVID-19 pandemic: exploring public and road
safety expert’s opinions
Wael K. M. Alhajyaseena,b , Abdulkarim Almukdadc, Qinaat Hussaina , Mustafa Almallaha,b,
Mohammed Abdullah Al Malkid, Jayaseelan Singaravelue and Susanna Zammatarof
a
Qatar Transportation and Traffic Safety Center, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar; bDepartment of Civil and Architectural
Engineering, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar; cCollege of Engineering, Qatar Transportation and Traffic Safety Center,
Qatar University, Doha, Qatar; dMinistry of Interior, National Traffic Safety Committee, Doha, Qatar; eNational Traffic Safety Office, Ministry of
Transport and Communications, Doha, Qatar; fInternational Road Federation, Vernier, Switzerland

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The main objective of this study is to investigate the status of traffic safety and the public perception Received 27 May 2021
of traffic safety during the during COVID-19 pandemic. Three different data sets are used in this study: Revised 21 July 2021
road crash and traffic violation data from Qatar, and two separate questionnaire surveys (from general Accepted 27 July 2021
public and road safety experts). Results showed that during COVID-19 period, the total number of KEYWORDS
crashes in Qatar significantly reduced during the pandemic compared with the previous 5 years. COVID-19 pandemic;
However, the rates of serious and fatal injuries significantly increased. Regarding the general public traffic safety;
perceptions, more than 80% reported that roads became safer while driving behaviours improved public perception;
during the pandemic. On the other hand, more than 50% of the experts disagreed that roads became road safety experts;
safer, 55% disagreed that driving behaviours improved and 70% agreed that less attention from driving behaviour;
crash data
governments was directed toward road safety during the pandemic. The findings from this study could
help policy makers to understand the road safety status during the pandemic to make appropriate
adjustments in the traffic laws and regulations on a temporary basis. This could help in reducing
crash-related injuries and as a result reduce pressure on health and other emergency services.

1. Introduction COVID-19 pandemic on transport systems. Furthermore,

underlying the impacts of the adopted restrictions on the
Over the years, the transportation system played a signifi- transport system including traffic safety is crucial for each
cant role in affecting the spread of the contagious viruses country, as every country has its unique set of preventive
(e.g. influenza A/H1N1, SARS and Ebola) (Xu et al., 2019; measures and circumstances.
Zhang et al., 2011). According to Zhao et al. (2018), to In this article, a detailed analysis of the traffic safety
prevent a large-scale outbreak of any disease, travel restric- status during the COVID-19 pandemic is conducted in the
tions should be imposed at appropriate times. Recently, the state of Qatar. This study looks at traffic safety from three
new contagious coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, was perspectives, road crash records, general population of driv-
declared to be a global pandemic on 11 March 2020 by the ers and road safety expert opinions. The analysis is based
World Health Organization (WHO) (World Health on original surveys from residents of Qatar and road safety
Organization, 2020). By the end of 2020, WHO reported experts from the international community, and road crash
more than 82 million confirmed cases of the COVID-19 data which would identify and clarify the impacts of the
with more than 1.8 million confirmed deaths (World Health COVID-19 pandemic on traffic safety. Figure 1 shows the
Organization, 2021a). Strict restrictions and policies were reported confirmed cases and the cumulative number of
imposed in different countries to limit the spread of the deaths due to COVID-19 on a daily basis in Qatar starting
COVID-19 including lockdowns, limiting work, education, from 20 February 2020 until 31 December 2020 (JHU CSSE,
shopping and/or physical activities and prohibiting social 2021). In addition, the figure also exhibits the cumulative
gathering. Moreover, many countries have prohibited air deaths due to Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs). By the end of
traveling by shutting down the airports. As a result, indi- the year 2020, 245 deaths were reported due to COVID-19,
viduals’ daily trips were significantly reduced which might while 126 deaths were resulted from RTCs.
have affected the traffic situations including traffic safety. On 29 February 2020, the first positive case of the
Policy makers and researchers from different countries have COVID-19 was reported in Qatar. Soon after that, the cases
shown a great interest in understanding the impacts of the increased and the Qatar government imposed new

CONTACT Wael K. M. Alhajyaseen wyaseen@qu.edu.qa Qatar Transportation and Traffic Safety Center, and Department of Civil and Architectural
Engineering, College of Engineering, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/),
which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any
way.
136 W. K. M. ALHAJYASEEN ET AL.

Figure 1. Daily new positive cases of COVID-19 and cumulative number of deaths from COVID-19 and crashes.

regulations to counteract the spread of the virus in the areas and allowing 30% of the shops inside malls to reopen.
country such as the suspension of all schools and univer- In phase 2 (1 July 2020) and phase 3 (28 July 2020), restau-
sities for all students on March 10 and work from home rants were allowed to reopen and the allowable percent of
order for 80% of government employees on 22 March 2020 employees in the workplace increased to 50% and 80% for
(Government Communications Office, 2020a; Hukoomi phase 2 and phase 3, respectively. Furthermore, in phase 3,
Qatar e-Government, 2020). However, a noticeable increase Qatar residents coming from low-risk countries (announced
in the confirmed cases started at the beginning of April by the Ministry of Public Health) were allowed to enter the
2020. Therefore, further restrictions were applied starting country. Eventually, on 1 September 2020 (phase 4), most
from 17 May 2020 including the obligation of wearing a of the restrictions were partially or fully lifted which
face mask outside the home, allowing only two persons to included the reopening of schools with maximum attending
sit in a vehicle with the exceptions for families and taxis students of 30% and reopening public transport with max-
(i.e. maximum of three persons), physical activities are imum capacity of 50%.
allowed only near the place of residence and the mandated The restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic
orders to install the mobile application ‘Ehteraz’ for location have not only reduced traffic volumes on the roads but
tracking etc. (Gulf Times, 2020a, 2020b). To ensure that could also have altered driving behaviour. In this regard,
the orders are being followed, fines of as much as 200,000 Bavel et al. (2020) indicated that factors associated with
QAR or up to 3 years of imprisonment were implemented psychological distress about the virus infections and the
in case of violation of these laws (World Gulf, 2020). As imposed governmental restrictions could also have strong
of 31 December 2020, more than 140 thousand confirmed impacts on individual driving behaviour. It has been wit-
cases of the COVID-19 were reported in Qatar, of which nessed around the world that traffic volume and congestion
245 infected individuals lost their lives (World Health on the roads were reduced due to the imposed restrictions
Organization, 2021b). In order to ease the restrictions, the (Du et al., 2021; Google, 2021). However, as a negative
government executed a four-phase plan (Government consequence, this might have triggered certain drivers to
Communications Office, 2020b). Although lifting of the commit unsafe driving behaviours such as speeding, mobile
restrictions were gradually applied, basic COVID-19 pre- phone usage and stunt driving (Katrakazas et al., 2020;
caution measures were still mandatory at all times including Vingilis et al., 2020). Therefore, the ratio of RTCs to the
wearing a face mask in public, having ‘Ehteraz’ mobile number of trips and/or the proportion of severe crashes
application, keeping social distancing and thermal screening might have been increased during the COVID-19 pandemic,
before entering indoor places. The first phase of lifting the even though lower number of TRCs are globally reported
restrictions started on 15 June 2020. During that phase, (Aloi et al., 2020; Brodeur et al., 2021; Oguzoglu, 2020;
several restrictions were partially lifted such as allowing an Qureshi et al., 2020; Saladié et al., 2020). Consequently,
additional 20% of government employees to work in their researchers have shown a great interest in quantifying the
workplace, reopening several public gardens in different changes in traffic safety during the COVID-19. However,
 International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion 137

it is also crucial to understand perceptions of individuals traffic fatalities. While comparing Qatar with these coun-
(general public and road safety experts) about traffic safety tries, we found a similar trend to most EU countries where
and driving behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic. the number of fatalities in Qatar resulting from RTCs
The main objective of this article is to investigate the decreased by 51%.
impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on traffic safety in the In general, a reduction in both average daily traffic and
state of Qatar as well as the drivers’ perception about traffic number of RTCs was observed during COVID-19 pandemic
safety during the pandemic. The analysis is carried out around the world which is rational and expected. Saladié
using crash data, and questionnaire surveys that were col- et al. (2020) investigated the impact of COVID-19 lockdown
lected from the general public in the state of Qatar and on RTCs and mobility trends in Tarragona province, Spain.
road safety experts from the international community. This Results from their study revealed that there was a reduction
will allow us to compare the real-world traffic situations of 74.3% in RTCs during 6 weeks after a lockdown was
with individuals’ perceptions of the improvement or dete- imposed on 16 March 2020 compared with the 6 weeks
rioration of traffic safety during the pandemic. before the lockdown. In addition, compared with the same
The organization of this paper is as follows: Section 2 period of lockdown in 2018–2019, RTCs decreased by 76%.
summarizes the existing literature related to the impacts of This was accompanied by 62.9% of reduction in mobility
the COVID-19 on traffic safety. This has assisted in finding trends between the before- and after-lockdown periods.
the gaps and formulating the research questions listed in Similar trends were found in Santander city, Spain, where
Section 3. Section 4 contains a description of the collected RTCs and mobility of private vehicles were reduced by 67%
data and sample descriptions. Section 5 presents the overall and 76%, respectively, after the government imposed a lock-
results of the impact that COVID-19 has had on traffic down (Aloi et al., 2020). Another study from Turkey showed
safety. Next, in Section 6, the main findings are discussed. that during the strict measures imposed by the government
The last section presents conclusions and policy-related in April 2020, RTCs reduced by 60% with a reduction of
recommendations. 72% and 19% in deaths and injuries, respectively, compared
with April 2019 (Oguzoglu, 2020).
In the United States, Qureshi et al. (2020) performed an
in-depth analysis to study the impact of the mandated lock-
2. Literature review
down on RTCs using data from Missouri State Highway
Figure 2 shows the percentage reduction in traffic fatalities Patrol from 1 January 2020 to 15 May 2020. The study
in April 2020 compared with the average fatalities in April revealed that there was a significant reduction in RTCs
for the previous 3 years (2017–2019) for different countries. resulting in no or minor injuries but not RTCs resulting
The figure is based on a report from the European Transport in serious or fatal injuries. Moreover, after the expiry of
Safety Council (ETSC, 2020), which reported the reduction the mandated lockdown orders, a significant increase in
in traffic fatalities for several European countries. It can be RTCs resulting in no or minor injuries was observed.
seen from the figure that in most of the countries, there Similar results were reported in another study showing that
was a reduction in traffic fatalities with the highest reduc- overall RTCs were reduced by 20% because of the safer-at-
tions of 84%, 68% and 63% being observed in Italy, Belgium home orders, however, severe RTCs increased by 18%
and Spain, respectively. However, some countries such as (Brodeur et al., 2021). According to the authors, the rise
the Netherlands and Slovakia experienced an increase in in the severe RTCs could be attributed to speeding behaviour

Figure 2. The reduction in traffic fatalities in Qatar and 20 European countries in April 2020 compared to April 2017–2019 average (ETSC, 2020).
138 W. K. M. ALHAJYASEEN ET AL.

adapted by some drivers. Doucette et al. (2021) conducted safety and driving behaviour during the pandemic. To the
a time series analysis and found a significant increase by extent of our knowledge, drivers’ perception and perspective
2.29 times in a single vehicle crash rate on a mileage driven about road safety and driving behaviour during COVID-19
basis after the lockdown was imposed in the state of (i.e. reduced traffic volume) is not investigated. In addition,
Connecticut. In addition, the authors reported a significant unlike many other countries, Qatar did not have a complete
increase by 4.10 times in the rate for single vehicle fatal lockdown, allowing different activities to continue with lim-
crashes. The authors argued that the reduced traffic volumes itations and restrictions. In accordance, Du et al. (2021),
during COVID-19 would increase the likelihood of some stated that the state of Qatar experienced a reduction in
risky driving behaviours such as speeding. traffic demand ranging from 5% and reaching to more than
The annual spotlight report from the Governors Highway 50% on 24 May 2020. Therefore, investigating the actual
Safety Association (2020) presented a comprehensive analysis traffic safety situation with drivers’ perception would allow
on the state and national trends in pedestrian deaths for us to fill this research gap. Studying this particular case for
January–June 2020. The report showed that despite the Qatar would be interesting due to its diverse driving pop-
enormous reduction in traffic flow 2957 pedestrians were ulation and aggressive driving behaviour (Alhajyaseen et al.,
killed during the first 6 months of 2020, which is almost 2020; Almallah et al., 2020; Hussain et al., 2019, 2020;
equal to the pedestrian fatalities for the first 6 months of Soliman et al., 2018; Timmermans et al., 2019a, 2020). In
2019. Interestingly, compared with the first 6 months of summary, we believe that the findings of this case study
2019, the report estimated a 20% increase in the pedestrian can be helpful for relevant authorities to enhance the
fatality rate per one billion vehicle miles travelled for the COVID-19 and traffic-related policies.
first 6 months of 2020. According to the report, if the rate
of pedestrian fatalities was similar to the first 6 months of
2019, around 600 fewer pedestrians would have been killed 3. Research questions
during the first half of 2020.
Inada et al. (2021) forecasted the number of fatal RTCs As mentioned above, the main objective of this article is
from 10 years data (i.e. January 2010 to February 2020) in to analyse the impacts that COVID-19 has had on traffic
Japan caused by speeding during the lockdown which safety in the state of Qatar, including Qatar citizens per-
started in March 2020. Based on the results, during the ception of road safety during the pandemic. The following
second month of the lockdown (April 2020), there was a research questions will be addressed in this article:
significant increase in the observed ratio of speed-related
fatal RTCs to that of non-speed-related fatal RTCs compared 1. To what extent did COVID-19 affect the RTCs and
with the forecasted ratio. The results clearly indicated that severity of RTCs in the State of Qatar?
drivers who continued driving during the lockdown were 2. How did the general public and road safety experts
more likely to drive with higher speeds which resulted in perceive road safety status and driving behaviour
fatal RTCs. Several other studies also indicated similar during the pandemic?
trends in speeding behaviour and speeding-related RTCs 3. Did the COVID-19 pandemic affect the attention on
during the lockdown period (Kaji et al., 2020; Lockwood road safety: based on road safety experts’
et al., 2020; Paparella, 2020; Shilling & Waetjen, 2020). opinions?
Katrakazas et al. (2020) studied the effect of the
COVID-19 lockdown on driving behaviour with the help
of a smartphone application in two different countries i.e. 4. Methodology
Greece and Saudi Arabia. The results revealed that compared
with the normal situation before the COVID-19 pandemic, 4.1. Data collection
the trips were shortened, however, driving speed was
The data used in this paper is taken from questionnaire
increased by 6%–11% with harsh accelerations and decel-
surveys (from general public in the state of Qatar as well
erations. Moreover, mobile phone use while driving was
as experts during a webinar) and road crash data in Qatar.
increased by 42% during the 2 months of lockdown.
Based on the literature, most of the above-mentioned
studies have focused on the impact of imposed restrictions 4.1.1. Questionnaire development
on RTCs. A few have also investigated the severity of the The purpose of the questionnaire was to capture public
RTCs. In addition, in most of the studies, comparison of perceptions about road safety in the state of Qatar. The
RTCs during COVID-19 was done with a previous year questionnaire was designed for residents of Qatar having a
without considering data from other prior years. Although valid Qatari driving license. The questionnaire was com-
traffic volume was significantly reduced when the restric- posed of two different sections as explained below:
tions were active, many drivers were still driving on those
less congested roads. That might be the reason why speeding • Section I – Socio-demographic characteristics: The
and aggressive driving behaviour was observed on the roads aim of this section was to collect data about the
in different studies. This study goes one step ahead by socio-demographic characteristics of each respondent,
investigating not only the real-world road safety situations such as age, gender, occupational status, educational
but also the public and experts’ perceptions about traffic level, ethnicity and family setup etc.
 International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion 139

• Section II – Perceptions about road safety and other were asked to answer three different questions along with
contextual factors: This section comprised questions the regular demographic questions. Two of the three ques-
related to individuals’ perceptions about road safety, tions were related to individuals’ perceptions about road
driving behaviour and congestion status on the roads safety and driving behaviour. The third question stated if
during COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, other con- the COVID-19 pandemic reduced the attention on road
textual factors such as, work from home, number of safety. Road safety experts from different international orga-
owned vehicles and household income etc. were also nizations including WHO, United Nations, International
included in the questionnaire. Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences (IATSS), World
Bank Group (WBG), Washington State Department of
The questionnaire was prepared in Arabic and English Transportation and Asian Development Bank attended the
languages. For collecting the data a web-based survey tool webinar with common aims of mitigating road traffic cau-
named Qualtrics was used (Molnar, 2019). The questionnaire salities and addressing potential impacts of the current
was spread with the general public through social media COVID-19 pandemic on road safety. In total, 153 respon-
platforms after obtaining the ethical approval from Qatar dents attended the webinar, of which 30 attendees did not
University (QU-IRB). The data was collected during the answer at least one question. Thus, 123 respondents have
peak spread of COVID-19 in Qatar which was from 22 answered all the questions, which were used in the analyses.
May 2020 till 13 June 2020. At the beginning of the ques-
tionnaire, general information related to the questionnaire 4.1.3. Road crash data
was mentioned and the respondents were required to con- Crash data was obtained from the National Traffic Safety
sent electronically. In total, 505 respondents filled the ques- Committee of the State of Qatar. The data summarizes the
tionnaire. To obtain the final sample, 101 respondents were number of total crashes, serious injuries and fatality crashes
excluded since they were either residing outside Qatar or of driver, passenger and pedestrian from January 2015 to
did not possess a valid Qatari driving license. Therefore, December 2020 for each month. Moreover, several other
we ended up with a final sample of 404 that was considered parameters such as the number of speeding tickets, passing
for the analyses. traffic signal violations and other violations in 2019 and
2020 are also provided as aggregated values per month.
4.1.2. Webinar questions development
In an international webinar entitled ‘Global trends on the
4.2. Sample description
status of traffic safety under the COVID-19 pandemic’
which was conducted on 29 September 2020 and organized 4.2.1. Sample description of the public questionnaire
by the World Conference on Transport Research Society Table 1 presents the demographic characteristics of the col-
(WCTRS), International Road Federation (IRF) and National lected sample (N = 404), as well as the population of Qatar
Traffic Safety Committee of the State of Qatar, the attendees (Planning and Statistics Authority, 2019a, 2019b, 2019c).

Table 1. Questionnaire respondents demographic characteristics.

Variable Levels Sample (%) Populationa (%)
Gender Male 62.9 78.1
Female 35.9 21.9
Prefer not to say 1.2
Age groups (years) 18 − 25 19.8 15.5
26 − 35 25.0 40.8
36 − 45 27.7 27.0
46 − 55 20.3 11.5
>55 7.2 5.2
Ethnicity Qatari 14.4 9b
Non-Qatari (Arab) 41.8 Other than Qatari: 91
Asian (non-Arab) 20.3
European and Australian 13.1
American 6.7
African (non-Arab) 3.7
Educational level High school or lower 13.9 76b
Bachelor or higher 86.1 24
Occupational status before COVID-19 Employed for wages 77.4 87.7b
Self-employed 2.3
Unemployed 2.0 1.5c
Students 17.4 5.1
Housewife/househusband 0.9 5.6
Occupational status during COVID-19 No change after COVID-19 35.9
Working from home 46.0
Online Education 11.6 Not applicable
Others 6.4
a
Demographic characteristics of the population in the state of Qatar (Planning and Statistics Authority, 2019a, 2019b, 2019c).
b
As per the population aging 15 years and above.
c
Includes disabled and retired population.
140 W. K. M. ALHAJYASEEN ET AL.

The sample consisted of 62.9% males and 35.9% females. To understand individuals’ perception level about traffic
While the rest (1.2%) of the sample did not disclose their safety during the pandemic, data was collected through the
gender. The respondents age varied between 18 and 67 two questionnaire surveys as explained earlier. The main
(Mean: 38 years, standard deviation (SD): 11.7 years) with variables were in discrete ordinal form (1 = strongly dis-
more than 70% of the respondents being less than 46 years agree, 5 = strongly agree), therefore, spearman’s correlation
of age. Among the different nationalities, 14.4% of the tests were conducted to find the significant relations (Hauke
respondents were Qatari, 41.8% non-Qatari Arabs, 20.3% & Kossowski, 2011; Khamis, 2008). In this regard, different
Asian (non-Arab), 13.1% European and Australian, 6.7% demographic and contextual factors such as age (continu-
American and 3.7% African (non-Arab). As for the occu- ous), gender (1 = female, 0 = male), ethnicity (dummy vari-
pational status of the workers and students in the sample, able: Asian, African, American, European and Australian),
46% and 66% have been shifted to remote work and edu- educational status (low to high), occupational status
cation during the pandemic, respectively. As per the com- (dummy variable: employed, unemployed, students) family
parison between the population data and sample data in setup (with children = 1, without children = 0), number
Table 1, most of the demographic characteristics of the of vehicles in the household (0, 1, 2, 3, 4+), number of
sample are at high scale of representation of the population. trips per week during COVID-19 (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6+),
However, the sample was noted to be skewed towards the gross income per month (low to high) and work-from-
higher level of education (bachelor or higher). The reason home (1 = yes, 0 = no) were used in the analysis of public
for this might be the difficulty in delivering the question- perception. However, regarding the experts’ perception data
naires to the population with low income/education as the for the two factors, (i.e. gender and country of residence)
surveys were distributed online. was available and were used in the analysis. Spearman’s
correlations were estimated using IBM SPSS Statistics soft-
ware (version 26) to measure the significant correlation
4.2.2. Sample description of the webinar metrics between the demographic/contextual factors and
The final sample of the webinar (N = 123) consisted of 69.9% the safety perceptions.
males vs. 30.1% females. Regarding the residential status,
51.2% of the respondents were residing in Asia, 13% in
Africa, 8.9% in America while 26.8% were residing in 5. Results
Europe and Australia. At the time of the webinar, the
respondents were residing in 41 different countries. It is 5.1. Road crash data
worth mentioning that most of the respondents were affil-
The crash data that was obtained from the National Traffic
iated with road safety-related international organizations or
Safety Committee of the State of Qatar included total
institutions.
crashes, type of injuries and different types of violations.
The overall data is summarized in two different tables that
4.3. Data analysis are presented as appendices. Appendix 1 includes the total
crashes, causalities and the rate of each causality per 1000
The analyses were conducted in two major areas, one crashes for each month that are reported for both the aver-
involved the crash data to investigate the impacts of the aged for 2015–2019 and separately for 2020. In addition,
COVID-19 pandemic on road traffic safety in the state of Appendix 2 includes the different types of violations for
Qatar, while the second aimed at understanding public and each month that are reported separately for 2019 and 2020.
experts’ perception level regarding traffic safety during the For better visualization, the data is illustrated in different
pandemic. In this regard, three different data sets were figures that will be discussed henceforth. It is important to
analysed. highlight that exposure data such as traffic volumes or
The crash data was obtained from the National Traffic vehicle-kilometre travelled was not available and thus it
Safety Committee of the State of Qatar, which included 6 could not be considered in the analysis.
years of crash data (2015–2020) and data on traffic viola- Figure 3 illustrates the overall number of road crashes
tions from the last 2 years (2019 and 2020). To investigate per month in Qatar separately for each year from 2015 to
the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on crashes and 2020 and averaged for years 2015–2019. These crashes
violations, the available data was plotted using line graphs include all types of crashes such as vehicle–pedestrian, vehi-
in terms of the number of crashes/violations and proportion cle–vehicle and vehicle–street objects crashes. It can be seen
of serious/fatal crashes in total crashes. In addition, to from the figure that road crashes were reduced gradually
understand if the reduction/increase of crashes or violations from 2015 to 2019 in general, which is the result of the
was significant, Z-tests were conducted. Z-tests are widely successful implementation of the National Traffic Safety
used to find whether the observed changes in crashes or Strategy (2013–2022) (Timmermans et al., 2019b). In this
rate of injuries are statistically significant or not (Chimba regard, a comparable similar trend was found in the crash
et al., 2010; Khattak et al., 2018; Williams et al., 1995). data from 2015 to 2019 such as peak road crashes in May
Two-tailed approach was followed for obtaining the p values and lowest road crashes from July to September. During
and a p value of .05 or lower was considered as the early stages of restrictions in the state of Qatar, a
significant. remarkable drop in the road crashes was noticed. To
 International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion 141

Figure 3. Number of overall road crashes from 2015 to 2020.

understand if the drop was significant, a Z-test was con- from 2015 to 2020 as well as the averaged injury rate for
ducted. The results showed that the average of the overall 2015–2019. The rates were calculated as dividing the inju-
road crashes from 2015 to 2019 (Mean: 20119, Standard ries (serious or fatal) by the total crashes of the same
Deviation (SD): 1495) was significantly higher than the month and year. As shown in Figure 4a, the rate of serious
overall road crashes in 2020 (Mean: 12108, SD: 3066) injuries/1000 crashes steeply elevated in 2020, especially
(two-tailed: z(9) = −7.427, p < .001). In fact, the data used during the peak restrictions period. Since the year 2015,
in all presented Z-tests in this section are for the period the highest rate of around five serious injuries/10,000
from March to December of each year as the COVID-19 crashes was obtained in April 2020. This was around 140%
started to spread in Qatar from March 2020 onwards. In increase in the rate of serious injuries/1000 crashes while
particular, the highest reduction in road crashes reached comparing to the mean rate of serious injuries/1000 crashes
up to 70% (Δ = 14,124 crashes) in April, when compared (2015–2019) for the same month. To investigate if the over-
with the average road crashes from 2015 to 2019 in April. all rate of serious injuries/1000 crashes in 2020 was sig-
However, the overall road crashes increased after April 2020 nificantly higher than the mean rate (2015–2019), Z-test
to reached ~15,000 in December 2020 since certain restric- (two-tailed) was conducted. The results confirmed that the
tions were lifted by the government in different phases from mean rate of serious injuries/1000 crashes in 2020 (Mean:
July 2020 onwards. 3.72, SD: 0.74) was significantly higher than the overall
Although the state of Qatar has witnessed a dramatic mean rate (2015–2019) (Mean: 2.45, SD: 0.29) (z(11) = 5.51,
reduction in the number of overall crashes due to the p < .001). A similar trend was observed for the rate of
pandemic, it is important to investigate if a similar trend fatal injuries/1000 crashes as shown in Figure 4b. The high-
was followed by the outcomes of these crashes as well. In est escalation was observed in the month of May in 2020
this regard, from the available data the rate of serious (1.56 fatalities/1000 crashes), which was around 94% higher
injuries per 1000 crashes (Figure 4a) and the rate of fatal than the mean fatalities/1000 crashes from 2015 to 2019
injuries per 1000 crashes (Figure 4b) were plotted. The for the same month (Mean: 0.80 fatalities/1000 crashes).
figures present the rates of injuries separately for each year The Z-test results showed that the overall mean rate of

Figure 4. Proportion of serious/fatal injuries per 1000 total crashes from 2015 to 2020.
142 W. K. M. ALHAJYASEEN ET AL.

fatalities/1000 crashes in 2020 (Mean: 0.93, SD: 0.28) was quarter of that year in the state of Qatar. The results from
significantly higher than the overall mean rate (2015–2019) Z-test confirmed that the number of violations in 2020
(Mean: 0.75, SD: 0.09) (z(11) = 2.05, p = .040). (Mean: 4867, SD: 608) was significantly higher than the
To further analyse the situations during the pandemic, same month in 2019 (Mean: 2844, SD: 1379) (two-tailed:
the number of reported speeding tickets, passing traffic z(10) = 4.65, p < .001). Figure 5c illustrates the number of
signal violations and other violations are plotted in Figure other violations such as overtaking violations, driving
5. As shown in Figure 5a, the total number of speeding license-related violations and stand and wait rules/
tickets in 2020 was higher than in 2019 before the appear- obligations-related violations (excluding the speeding and
ance of the COVID-19 in Qatar. However, in March and passing traffic signal violations) for 2019 and 2020. Again,
April 2020, a large reduction in the number of speeding a steep reduction of around 78% was observed in the
tickets was noticed (i.e. up to 81% of reduction in April month of April in 2020 compared with the same month
2020 compared with April 2019). To see if the difference of 2019. The results from Z-test showed that the reduction
was significant, a Z-test (two-tailed) was conducted between in other traffic violations in 2020 was significant (two-tailed:
the 2 years. The results showed that the number of speed- z(10) = −3.87, p < .001).
ing tickets in 2020 (Mean: 90,910, SD: 36,406) was signifi-
cantly different at .1 level compared with 2019 (Mean: 5.2. General public perceptions of traffic safety during
112,036, SD: 12,175) (two-tailed: z(11) = −1.9, p = .056). COVID-19
As for the passing traffic signals violations [red-light run-
ning (RLR)], it was noted that in 2020, the number of Figure 6 illustrates the percentages of the public perceptions
violations were always higher than the same month in 2019 on traffic safety for the three different questions. Most of
(Figure 5b). Although, the number of passing traffic signal the respondents perceived that the roads have become more
violations were reduced in April 2020 compared with the safer during the pandemic. Out of the total respondents,
previous month, it remained higher than in April 2019. 83% and 92% reported that the roads have become more
However, after a slight reduction in April 2020, the viola- safer and the driving behaviour (i.e. less reckless or aggres-
tions increased to reach a steady range that is equivalent sive driving behaviour) has improved, respectively.
to the same month in 2019. As informed by the National Furthermore, 67% have agreed that the road congestion was
Traffic Safety Committee of the State of Qatar, the sharp also reduced during the pandemic.
increase in the traffic signal violations between June and Table 2 presents the results from Spearman’s correlation
August 2019 could be due to the newly installed RLR vio- for the three main questions with the demographic and
lation cameras at many intersections during the third some other contextual factors such as age, gender, ethnicity,

Figure 5. Comparison of total number of violations between 2019 and 2020 for each month.
 International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion 143

Figure 6. Results of the road safety questions from the questionnaire survey.

Table 2. Spearman’s Correlations between each question from the Questionnaire.

Q2: Driving behaviour has been Q3: Overall, the road
Q1: Roads became safer improved during COVID-19 congestion during the
during the COVID-19 pandemic (less reckless and COVID-19 pandemic gets
pandemic aggressive driving) reduced
Coefficient P N Coefficient P N Coefficient P N
Q1: Roads became safer during the COVID-19 Pandemic 1.00 . 404 .557 <.001** 404 .505 <.001** 404
Q2: Driving behaviour has been improved during COVID-19 .557 <.001** 404 1.00 . 404 .245 <.001** 404
pandemic (less reckless and aggressive driving)
Q3: Overall, the road congestion during the COVID-19 .505 <.001** 404 .245 <.001** 404 1.00 . 404
pandemic gets reduced
Age (low to high) .154 .002** 404 .072 .147 404 .278 <.001** 404
Gender (0 = male, 1 = female) –.016 .747 399 –.091 .071* 399 –.114 .022** 399
Ethnicity
Asian –.099 .047** 404 –.003 .957 404 –.167 .001** 404
African .093 .063* 404 .099 .047** 404 .061 .220 404
American .021 .668 404 –.027 .589 404 .080 .109 404
European and Australian .024 .628 404 –.083 .095* 404 .111 .025** 404
Education level (low to high) .049 .329 404 –.014 .783 404 .226 <.001** 404
Occupational status
Employed .151 .002** 404 .086 .085* 404 .241 <.001** 404
Unemployed –.075 .134 404 –.041 .412 404 –.001 .980 404
Student –.127 .010** 404 –.073 .145 404 –.256 <.001** 404
Gross income (low to high) –.007 .892 331 –.130 .018** 331 .061 .270 331
Number of vehicles (cars/motorbikes) in the household (low –.099 .047** 404 –.122 .014** 404 –.121 .015** 404
to high)
*Significant at 0.1 level; **significant at 0.05 level.

educational/occupational status, family setup (with and with- Q3 (r(402) = .278, p < .001). This indicates that compared
out children), number of vehicles in the household, number with younger people, elder people have higher perceptions
of trips during COVID-19, gross income per month and that the roads became safer and less congested. Furthermore,
work-from-home. Results of the factors that were not sig- compared with males, females showed higher disagreement
nificant at 90% confidence level for any of the three main on the statements that the driving behaviour (r(402) = −.091,
questions are not reported in the table. In this regard, the p = .071) and traffic flow (r(402) = −.114, p = .022) improved
factors ‘family setup’, ‘number of trips during COVID-19’ during the pandemic. When it comes to the different ethnic
and ‘work-from-home’ had no significant correlations with groups, Africans had higher perceptions that roads became
any of the main questions. A general consensus was found safer (r (402) = .093, p = .063) and driving behaviour
in the individuals’ perceptions regarding road safety (Q1), improved during the pandemic (r(402) = .099, p = .047).
driving behaviour (Q2) and road congestion (Q3), i.e. Q1 Different from that, Asian showed a higher disagreement
& Q2 (r(402) = .557, p < .001), Q1 & Q3 (r(402) = .505, p < on road safety improvement (r(402) = −.099, p = .047) while
.001) and Q2 & Q3 (r(402) = .245, p < .001). This means Europeans and Australians showed a higher disagreement
that the respondents who agreed that the roads have become on the improvement of driving behaviour during the pan-
safer during the pandemic, have also agreed that the driving demic (r(402) = −.083, p = .095). Moreover, regarding the
behaviour was improved while the road congestion was reduction in road congestion during the pandemic,
reduced. Europeans and Australians showed a higher agreement
Regarding age of the respondents, the results showed (r(402) = .111, p = .025) while Asians showed a higher
positive correlations with Q1 (r(402) = .154, p = .002) and disagreement (r(402) = −.167, p = .001) both compared with
144 W. K. M. ALHAJYASEEN ET AL.

the other ethnic groups. Respondents with higher educa- Figure 8 illustrates the percentages of the road safety
tional level indicated that the congestion level was reduced experts’ perceptions on three different questions split by
during the pandemic (r(402) = .226, p < .001). Regarding gender and country of residence of the experts. Females
occupational status, respondents who were employed showed comparably higher disagreement for the first two
showed higher agreements with all of the statements (Q1: statements compared with males. However, compared with
r(402) = .151, p = .002; Q2: r(402) = .086, p = .085; Q3: r(402) males, they had higher perceptions that the COVID-19
= .241, p < .001). In contrary, the students showed higher pandemic reduced the attention on road safety. Regarding
disagreement that the roads became safer (r(402) = −.127, the country of residence, experts from Asia had higher
p = .010) or less congested (r(402) = −.256, p < .001) com- perceptions (54.8% agreed) followed by experts from Africa
pared with the other groups. This is in accordance with (50% agreed) on road safety during the pandemic. However,
the impact of age where younger participants showed only 23.7% of the experts from Europe shown agreement
higher disagreement with the questioned improvements. to this statement. Moreover, regarding the improvement of
Interestingly, respondents’ gross income was negatively cor- driving behaviour during the pandemic, experts from Africa
related with Q2 (r(402) = −.130, p = .018) indicating that have shown the highest disagreement (68.8% disagreed)
respondents with higher income showed higher disagree- followed by Europe and Australia (60.6% disagreed). When
ment that driving behaviour was improved during the pan- it comes to the third question, 97% of the experts from
demic. Finally, the factor ‘number of vehicles in the Europe and Australia agreed that the pandemic affected the
household’ was negatively correlated with all of the state- attention given to road safety.
ments (Q1: r(402) = −.099, p = .047; Q2: r(402) = −.122, p = To investigate the significant correlations between the
.014; Q3: r(402) = −.121, p = .015). This indicates that three main questions and the factors ‘gender’ and ‘country
respondents who were possessing more vehicles had higher of residence’, a Spearman’s correlation was conducted. The
disagreements on the improvement of traffic safety, driving results showed that gender was not significant for any of
behaviour and traffic flow compared with those with no the three questions. Table 3 presents the results from
or less vehicles. Spearman’s correlation for the three main questions and the
factor ‘country of residence’. Again a general consensus was
found in the experts’ perceptions regarding road safety and
driving behaviour (Q1 vs. Q2: r(402) = .385, p < .001). This
5.3. Experts’ perceptions of traffic safety during
COVID-19 pandemic means that road safety experts who agreed that the roads
became safer during the pandemic, have also shown agree-
Figure 7 presents the percentages of the experts’ perceptions ment that the driving behaviour was improved. However,
on traffic safety for the three different questions that were negative correlations were found between Q1 and Q3 (r(402)
asked during the webinar. Despite the fact that 47% of the = −.227, p = .012), and Q2 and Q3 (r(402) = −.199, p =
respondents mentioned that the roads became safer during .028). This shows the consistency between experts’ opinions,
the pandemic, 55% indicated that the driving behaviour was i.e. the experts who thought that the traffic safety or driving
not improved. It is interesting to note that unlike the general behaviour have improved, disagreed that the attention on
public perceptions (Figure 6), a higher percentage of traffic roads reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Regarding
safety experts disagreed with the statements on the improve- the country of residence, experts living in Asia have shown
ment of traffic safety and driving behaviour during the higher agreement (r(120) = .160, p = .078) while experts
pandemic (Figure 7). Moreover, 70% of the respondents living in Europe or Australia have shown higher disagree-
agreed that the pandemic has reduced the attention on ment (r(120) = −.195, p = .031) on Q1 (roads became safer
road safety. during the COVID-19 pandemic), compared with the other

Figure 7. Percentages of the experts’ perceptions on traffic safety for the three different questions.
 International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion 145

Figure 8. Percentages of the experts’ perceptions on traffic safety by gender and country of residence.

Table 3. Spearman’s Correlations between each question from the webinar questions.
Driving behaviour has been improved
Roads became safer during the during COVID-19 pandemic (less reckless COVID-19 pandemic reduced
COVID-19 Pandemic and aggressive driving) the attention on road safety
Coefficient P N Coefficient P N Coefficient P N
Roads became safer during the COVID-19 1 – 122 .385 <.001** 122 –.227 .012** 122
pandemic
Driving behaviour has been improved during .385 <.001** 122 1 – 122 –.199 .028** 122
COVID-19 pandemic (less reckless and
aggressive driving)
COVID-19 pandemic reduced the attention on –.227 .012** 122 –.199 .028** 122 1 – 122
road safety
Country of residence
Asia .160 .078* 122 .056 .539 122 –.092 .316 122
Africa .029 .751 122 –.076 .404 122 –.186 .040** 122
America –.011 .908 122 .073 .421 122 –.155 .088* 122
Europe and Australia –.195 .031** 122 –.053 .565 122 .344 <.001** 122
*Significant at 0.1 level; **significant at 0.05 level.

regions. Regarding the perceptions that the COVID-19 pan- significant difference between the experts from different
demic reduced the attention on road safety, the experts regions which means that surveyed experts from different
living in Europe and Australia had higher agreements com- continents consistently agree that driving behaviour was not
pared with the other regions (r(120) = .344, p < .001). improved during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, compared with the other regions, experts living
in Africa (r(120) = −.186, p = .040) and America (r(120) =
−.155, p = .088) have shown lower agreements on the state- 6. Discussion
ment that the pandemic reduced the attention on road safety
compared with other regions. Finally, when it comes to the The main aims of this study were to investigate the traffic
perceptions on driving behaviour, we did not find any safety status (RTCs, rate of injuries and violations) during
146 W. K. M. ALHAJYASEEN ET AL.

the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore the general public et al. (2010), exposure to a repetitive travel behaviour for
and road safety experts’ perceptions of traffic safety during at least 1 month could shape individual’s travel habits in
the pandemic. Three different research questions were for- the future. Concerning the violations, as it was expected,
mulated in this study to address the above objectives. In we found that the number speeding and other type of vio-
this section, the research questions will be repeated for lations reduced with high margins during the peak restric-
convenience and for formulating our findings tion periods. However, the trend of RLR violations was
subsequently. completely opposite compared with the other violations, i.e.
The first research question was ‘to what extent did the no steep reduction was observed in these violations during
COVID-19 affect the RTCs and their severities in Qatar?’ the peak restriction period of 2020 compared with the pre-
Presented road crash data in section 5.1 ‘Road crash data’ vious months in early 2020 and the last quarter of 2019
for the period from 2015 to 2020 can be linked to the first where new RLR cameras were already installed at many
research question. In this regard, we found that in general intersections. Policy makers should make use of such trends
RTCs were reduced gradually from 2015 to 2019. This to implement temporary traffic calming measures during
reduction can be attributed to the implementation of the the expected upcoming waves of the COVID-19 or future
National Traffic Safety strategy (2013–2022) which led to epidemics.
overall improvements in medical emergency response and The second research question was ‘How did the general
treatments, advancement in traffic enforcement technology public and traffic experts perceive road safety status and
such as the installation of speed and RLR radars, and driving behaviour during the pandemic?’ Most of the gen-
improvements in overall road infrastructures. However, a eral public perceived that road safety status (83%) and driv-
large reduction in RTCs was observed during the pandemic ing behaviour (92%) improved during the pandemic. While
especially in the months of April till July in the state of comparing the differences in perception levels, certain
Qatar. This steep reduction in RTCs could solely be due to groups showed higher agreement than others. For instance,
the fact that highest governmental restrictions were imposed males showed higher agreements that driving behaviour was
during that period such as work-from-home, online educa- improved and roads were less congested during the pan-
tion, social distancing, prohibiting social gathering and demic compared with females. Important to mention here
restrictions on other out-of-home activities. The reduction that males had higher exposure to the roads compared with
in overall RTCs is not only witnessed in Qatar but also in females, i.e. higher proportion of males were not working
many other countries in the world as found in the literature from home (35.8%) compared with females (11%), and
(Aloi et al., 2020; Brodeur et al., 2021; Oguzoglu, 2020; males performed more trips per day (2.1 trips/day) com-
Qureshi et al., 2020; Saladié et al., 2020). pared with females (1.6 trips/day) during the peak restric-
Although, RTCs were reduced dramatically, a completely tions period. Compared with youngster drivers, older drivers
opposite trend was observed in the outcomes of these have higher perceptions that the roads have become safer
crashes. In this regard, we found that the rates of minor/ and less congested. Regarding ethnicity, compared with the
major and fatal injuries per 1000 crashes climbed up during other ethnic groups, Asians showed higher disagreement
the highest restrictions period (see Appendix 1). This clearly while Africans showed higher agreement that the roads
shows that the main proportional reduction happened only became safer. Next, Africans had higher perceptions while
in the property damage only (PDO) crashes, which com- Europeans and Australians had lower perceptions that the
monly occur during traffic congestion periods. The steep driving behaviour improved. When it comes to the gross
increase in the rates of injuries could be due to the fact income, individuals with higher income had lower percep-
that roads experienced significantly low traffic volumes tions that the driving behaviour improved.
during the peak restrictions period, which resulted in Interestingly, the experts’ perceptions about road safety
increased aggressive and speeding behaviour (Bényei & and driving behaviour were different than the general public
Golarits, 2002; Doucette et al., 2021; Oskarbski et al., 2020). perceptions. For instance, one third of the experts did not
Therefore, increased speeding behaviour could have trig- agree that the road safety improved during the pandemic
gered more severe outcomes from crashes. Another reason compared with 4% of the general public who disagreed. In
could be the increase in social, financial and psychological addition, more than half of the experts disagreed that the
stress (Robillard et al., 2020) and anxiety and depression driving behaviour was improved during the pandemic com-
(Hou et al., 2021) levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. pared with only 3% of the general public who disagreed.
In this context, according to Kontogiannis (2006), driver A possible reason could be that general public associate
stress level has a strong correlation with unsafe driving traffic volume to the overall road safety in general, while
behaviours as well as traffic crashes. In addition, a review the road safety experts analyse road safety in a deeper way
study indicated that drivers with depression may encounter and they are exposed to updated data and information on
difficulties with divided attention, reaction time, changing road safety. For instance, as found in this study that even
speeds and changing lanes (Wickens et al., 2014). Our though overall RTCs were reduced, the rates of injuries
results also indicated that even when most of the restrictions were higher during the pandemic compared with the pre-
were lifted during the last quarter of 2020, the rates of vious years. In general, the rates of injuries could provide
injuries were still higher compared with the same months a significant illustration of road safety, e.g. higher rates of
from the previous few years (2015–2019). According to Lally injuries indicate lower proportional road safety and higher
 International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion 147

proportional unsafe driving behaviour. Therefore, the traffic 7. Conclusion

experts’ opinions are more in-line with the reported road
safety status during the pandemic compared with the public The objectives of this study were to investigate the impacts
opinions. The results from Spearman’s correlation confirmed of the COVID-19 pandemic on traffic safety (RTCs, rate of
that the gender of road safety experts was not significant injuries and violations) using crash data in Qatar. In addi-
factor, meaning that both male and female experts had tion, the study presents results from a questionnaire survey
similar opinions regarding road safety and driving behaviour targeting the general public in Qatar and a webinar survey
during the pandemic. With regard to the country of resi- targeting international road safety experts to explore their
dence, the road safety experts from Asia had higher per- perceptions regarding traffic safety during the pandemic.
ceptions while the experts from Europe and Australia had In this regard, the study attempted to first investigate the
lower perceptions that roads became safer during the pan- trend of RTCs and rates of injuries during the pandemic
demic compared to the experts from other regions. Such and to statistically compare them with the trends 5 years
findings about evaluating the differences between individ- prior to the pandemic using Z-tests. The results showed
uals’ perceptions regarding road safety, driving behaviour that there was a significant reduction in overall RTCs in
and congestion level are not yet reported in the literature 2020, compared with the previous years. During the peak
and therefore, could contribute to improve policy makers’ restriction period in April 2020, a 70% reduction in overall
knowledge of public perceptions during the pandemic. crashes were observed. Although, there was drastic reduction
The third research question was ‘did the COVID-19 pan- in overall crashes, we found that the rate of injuries per
demic affect the attention on road safety: based on road 1000 crashes was significantly increased, especially during
safety experts’ opinions?’. In this regard, we found that the peak restrictions period, i.e. the rates of serious and
around 70% of the experts showed agreement that the pan- fatal injuries increased by 140% and 111% in April and
demic reduced the attention on road safety. This is quite May, respectively. This means that the main proportional
logical as the government and public attention was shifted reduction happened in the PDO crashes only, which usually
towards COVID-19-related issues. In addition, there should occur during the high traffic volume situations. The results
be high financial burdens due to the COVID-19 alleviation further indicated that since the roads had low traffic vol-
measures and economic crisis around the world, which umes during the peak restrictions period, this could have
could have exerted high pressures on funding at different triggered unsafe driving behaviour such as speeding or
levels including road safety. However, it is important for reckless driving. Moreover, the study analysed data from
relevant authorities to keep balance between different issues questionnaire surveys and a webinar survey to investigate
including road safety in a more cost-effective way. In addi- general public perceptions regarding road safety. The overall
tion, this is a good time to inform the public regarding the descriptive statistics showed that majority of the respondents
importance of road safety to overcome the RTCs and from the general public sample agreed that the road safety
resulted casualties. Furthermore, road traffic authorities and driving behaviour improved during the pandemic.
could examine strategies that could be implemented on a However, unlike the general public, higher percentages of
temporary basis to reduce risky driving behaviours in these the road safety experts disagreed that the roads became
type of situations with lower traffic volumes. This could safer (33%) or driving behaviour improved (55%) during
not only help in saving lives but also help in reducing the pandemic. The results form Spearman’s correlation tests
pressure on health and other emergency services during showed that there was no significant difference in perception
these difficult times. levels about road safety and driving behaviour between male
This study had some methodological limitations. The and female experts. However, experts from Europe and
violation-related data presented in this study describes the Australia showed higher disagreements, while those from
overall violation for each category, e.g. RLR violations. It Asia showed higher agreement that the road safety improved
would be interesting to examine the differences in traffic during the pandemic in comparison to the experts from
violations identified by automated cameras systems vs. tick- other regions. Around 70% of the experts agreed that the
ets given in person by officers separately. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic affected the attention on road safety.
samples of the public questionnaire and the webinar were In this regard, experts from American and African countries
skewed more towards male respondents, i.e. 62.9% and showed lower agreement while experts from Europe and
69.9%, respectively. Samples containing higher proportion Australia showed significantly higher agreement.
of female respondents may produce slightly different results. The study is important in that it presents the RTCs and
Nonetheless, the actual population in Qatar include higher their casualties as well as public/experts’ perceptions regard-
percentage of males (78.1%) (Planning and Statistics ing road safety during the pandemic. The findings of this
Authority of Qatar, 2019a). Future studies should focus on study could help policy makers to understand the road
evaluating the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pan- safety status during the pandemic and the impacts that
demic on road safety and driving behaviour. In addition, COVID-19 has had on the various aspects of road safety
future studies with higher sample size could use more and driving behaviour. Policy makers could make appropri-
sophisticated modelling techniques to draw different linkages ate adjustments in the traffic laws and regulations on a
between public/experts’ perceptions and the real-world temporary basis to overcome risky driving behaviours during
impacts that COVID-19 has had on various travel behaviour future epidemics, for instance, by re-evaluating the posted
characteristics. speed limits and traffic fines. This could not only help in
148 W. K. M. ALHAJYASEEN ET AL.

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Acknowledgments as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of Coronavirus
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Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library. This n-the-suspension-of-public-and-private-schools-and-universities-fo
publication was made possible by the Collaborative Grant r-all-students-until-fur ther-notice-as-a-precautionar y
[QUCG-CENG-21/22-2] from the Qatar University. The statements -measure-to-contain-the-spread-of-coronavirus/
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Appendix 1. Total crashes and injuries: averaged annual data from 2015 to 2019 vs. data from 2020
150

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Violations type in 2019
Radar 116,207 105,498 119,139 114,295 111,712 134,232 116,054 84,556 97,275 116,670 114,675 114,121
Passing traffic signal violations 1582 591 2048 2048 1552 1522 2186 3239 5057 4537 4353 4409
Overtaking violations 1830 1966 2636 1747 1835 1052 1585 1691 1589 1299 1348 775
Driving license violations 103 76 86 75 50 72 119 105 140 142 112 102
Stand and wait rules and obligations violations 14,885 14,151 19,999 18,263 9756 12,558 25,901 16,610 17,583 18,439 15,975 14,075
Others 37,405 32,387 37,206 33,065 29,526 28,460 33,872 27,251 32,219 32,170 29,126 27,606
Violations type in 2020
W. K. M. ALHAJYASEEN ET AL.

Radar 131,618 119,206 83,792 29,282 21,199 60,930 98,906 93,367 100,947 115,388 106,698 129,585
Passing traffic signal violations 5181 5761 5890 3725 4189 4726 4811 4952 4568 5027 4472 5104
Overtaking violations 1092 1266 513 290 307 609 1019 753 113 104 123 124
Driving license violations 122 144 139 58 56 49 52 71 61 69 84 57
Stand and wait rules and obligations violations 16,787 15,109 8704 3015 6043 15,657 18,810 14,884 14,227 16,178 13,913 13875
Others 27,473 27,188 17,866 8418 9627 17,486 25,479 22,747 25,252 26,039 26,231 25,115
Appendix 2. Total violations: violations in 2019 vs. violations in 2020

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Averaged annual data from 2015 to 2019
Average annual crashes (2015–2019) 19359 18398 21100 20152 22713 20583 18340 17423 19337 21885 20078 19582
Casualties
Fatalities
Driver 6.2 6.6 6.4 6 7.2 5.4 5.8 5.2 6.8 7 5.2 8.8
Passenger 5 3.2 3.6 4.8 4 6.6 3.8 1.4 3 3.6 6 4.4
Pedestrian 5.4 2.2 5 4.2 7 3.8 4 2.8 3.2 6.4 5.4 5.4
Total 16.6 12 15 15 18.2 15.8 13.6 9.4 13 17 16.6 18.6
Minor injuries 474 442 470 447 475 442 398 377 411 479 483 515
Serious injuries 55 47 49 42 46 53 51 44 37 54 52 53
Rate
Fatality/1000 crash 0.84 0.66 0.71 0.74 0.81 0.75 0.73 0.55 0.67 0.77 0.83 0.95
Major injury/1000 crash 2.84 2.57 2.32 2.06 2.02 2.58 2.76 2.55 1.93 2.49 2.58 2.73
Minor injury/1000 crash 24.48 24.02 22.26 22.16 20.90 21.49 21.72 21.63 21.24 21.91 24.05 26.29
Traffic data in 2020
Total crashes 17474 17081 11393 6028 7030 11194 13153 13596 14182 14690 14866 14943
Casualties
Fatalities
Driver 6 2 5 4 6 6 6 5 7 5 8 5
Passenger 1 2 1 0 1 3 1 4 3 5 0 6
Pedestrian 5 2 5 1 4 2 5 5 0 4 6 7
Total 12 6 11 5 11 11 12 14 10 14 14 18
Minor injuries 618 531 417 290 298 322 343 359 398 467 514 540
Serious injuries 51 64 48 30 24 31 49 32 52 57 70 64
Rate
Fatality/1000 crash 0.69 0.35 0.97 0.83 1.56 0.98 0.91 1.03 0.71 0.95 0.94 1.20
Major injury/1000 crash 2.92 3.75 4.21 4.98 3.41 2.77 3.73 2.35 3.67 3.88 4.71 4.28
Minor injury/1000 crash 35.37 31.09 36.60 48.11 42.39 28.77 26.08 26.40 28.06 31.79 34.58 36.14
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