Oman road accidents killed 54 in May

Muscat: Fifty-four people died in road accidents in May this year, including 33 nationals and 21 expatriates, according to the National Centre for Statistics and Information’s (NCSI’s) monthly report.
However, the report showed a 35.4 per cent drop in the number of road accidents in the first five months of this year, compared with the same period last year.
A total of 2,703 accidents had occurred until May last year, out of the 6,279 recorded for the whole of 2015. This year, 1,745 road accidents were recorded during the first five months of this year, including 333 accidents that took place in March, 365 in April and 332 in May.
The report also pointed out that among the 54 nationals who died in May this year, two were Omani women.
Meanwhile, 163 nationals and 57 expatriates were injured in 332 road accidents that took place in May, data indicated. Among the 220 injured, 39 were Omani females and five were expat women.
Compared with the first five months of 2015, a drop of 24.8 per cent was recorded in the number of injuries during the same period.
However, the number of deaths caused by road accidents remained the same at 264, during the first five months of both years.
The expat injury rate dropped 23.7 per cent, where the number of injuries recorded until May of 2015 was 358, compared with 273 recorded this year. But, the number of deaths among expats in road accidents rose from 85 to 90 during the first five months of this year.
The number of nationals wounded fatally in road accidents in May rose from 29 to 33, compared with April.
However, the number of expats dying in April and May remained the same at 21. The report revealed that road accidents taking place in Muscat this month dropped by 17 per cent, compared with the same month last year.
The report also stated that 58 per cent of the road accidents took place in Muscat, which occurred during the day, while 42 per cent took place at night.
The statistics issued by NCSI also revealed that 41,900 new vehicles were registered from the beginning of this year till the end of May. The data also showed that the number of vehicles on the road until the end of May of this year was 1,326,254.
A drop of 30.2 per cent was recorded in the registrations of new motorbikes until the end of May this year, compared with a year ago.