As driving without licences is on the rise during winter camping season, the General Directorate of Traffic, represented by the Traffic Awareness Department, has organised an awareness campaign against the trend.

The campaign ‘Driving without a licence’, which is part of ongoing awareness campaigns for winter camping season, was organized in collaboration with the Juvenile Police Department.

The campaign organisers visited camps at Rawdat Rashed area where the awareness team provided safe driving tips and guidance to campers and presented videos on mechanisms and means of enhancing safety and preventing traffic accidents. The campaign included emphasizing the gravity of wrong behaviours during driving including driving without a license, not wearing a helmet while cycling etc.

The awareness team was accompanied with a vehicle which was equipped with a display screen to demonstrate the importance of adhering to safety guidelines and their role in preventing various accidents in camping areas.

The winter camping season usually creates conducive environment for underage drivers to drive without having licence because the camping areas are away from the traffic police eyes.

An official from the department earlier said that among the reasons that make children to drive cars without licence is carelessness on behalf of parents or their encouragement to the child’s initiative.

In addition to winter camps, driving without license is also frequently done in places near to schools, especially in the vicinity of junior and secondary schools.

The punishment if underage children found driving without licence is the seizure of the vehicle for three months even after the settlement of the case. The driver then is transferred through the Juvenile Police to the juveniles’ prosecution (in case the child is less than 16 years).

The Ministry of the Interior recently allocated fourth week of ‘Accident-Free Summer’ campaign to warn people against the dangers of “driving without a license” and to raise awareness of the consequences of this violation and the penalties stipulated by the law. The Ministry during the first half of 2018 caught 143 people for driving without a licence.

Source: The Peninsula Qatar