{"id":2047,"date":"2013-06-26T09:19:49","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T09:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pcdcr.org\/?p=2047"},"modified":"2016-03-03T07:38:18","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T07:38:18","slug":"%d9%87%d9%84-%d8%b3%d9%88%d9%8a%d9%86%d8%a7-%d9%84%d9%87%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b7%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%82-%d8%9f%d8%9f%d8%9f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pcdcr.org\/en\/%d9%87%d9%84-%d8%b3%d9%88%d9%8a%d9%86%d8%a7-%d9%84%d9%87%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b7%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%82-%d8%9f%d8%9f%d8%9f\/","title":{"rendered":"Did we make the road safe for them?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
A culture of neglect, indifference and carelessness, and of making light of citizens' lives, has spread through most aspects and corners of our lives. Although we hear the saying repeated that \"the human being is the most precious thing we have\", yesterday's accident on Salah al-Din road in Jabalia places us all before a fact: that almost \"no one\" cares about people's lives, or their living, or even their torments and their pain.<\/div>\n
What does it mean to the officials that a child is killed on his way back from taking part in a solidarity stand for the prisoners, to strengthen the steadfastness of his imprisoned father? What does it mean to them that eight children, at an age as tender as rosebuds, lie in intensive care and open their eyes to artificial respirators instead of opening them to life?<\/div>\n
And before that, what did it mean to them that eight children drowned in the sewage pools spread like cancer cells the length of the Strip, and that a number of other children were burned to death in a house fire caused by the power cut and the lighting of candles?<\/div>\n
Has neglect among us reached such a degree? Has our disregard for human life gone this far?<\/div>\n
How painful is that scene on Salah al-Din road. How harsh are the moans of children covered in blood after their bus was crushed over their tender heads yesterday afternoon. How ugly is the culture of passivity, shortcoming and indifference that lies in wait for us, and from which we neither learn nor take warning.<\/div>\n
It is true that what happened is God's decree and destiny, and we believe in it, its good and its ill, but did we take the proper measures and the factors of safety on the road, so that we can afterwards say that this was God's decree?<\/div>\n
Is this not a recklessness that God Almighty does not accept? Is this not a disregard, which the Lord does not accept, for lives and for the value of a human being?<\/div>\n
I visited the site of the painful accident and examined it closely in the hope of finding any sign or mark indicating that the simplest safety measures had been taken on the road, and unfortunately I found none.<\/div>\n
Maintenance works at the \"Zimmo\" junction on Salah al-Din street were being carried out by one of the contractors, who closed half the road running north and diverted traffic to the other half running south, so that half the road, between the central reservation and the pavement, was operating in both directions. In the middle of this stretch of road the terrible collision occurred between a lorry coming from the north heading south and the bus carrying the children heading north.<\/div>\n
Here I must record the following observations, in the hope that they help identify responsibility and punish the reckless on the one hand, and that the harsh lesson is learned on the other, so that this tragic disaster is not repeated.<\/div>\n
1-\u00a0<\/span>The contractor did not put up the signs needed to alert drivers to the maintenance works and the diversion of the road for those coming from the south, nor did he put up warning signs for those coming from the north to alert them that the road ahead had become two-way on this stretch, with a speed limit on this section of no more than 30 km\/h, given that an important change had been made to a road on which vehicles usually travel fast.<\/div>\n
2-\u00a0<\/span>Visibility was poor, since the accident occurred at the sharpest point of a bend in the road. This required the contractor to place a number of orange fluorescent cones between the two lanes in the middle of the road in order to separate the traffic of those using their own lane coming from the north from those temporarily using the road coming from the south. A cone is usually placed every 20 metres along the length of the closed section of road.<\/div>\n
The importance of this measure lies in separating the two lanes and reducing speed. Those investigating the accident should establish the speed of the lorry coming from the north, since witnesses said the collision was violent, which points to the lorry's speed, in addition to its travelling on the left of the road in clear breach of the traffic regulations, since a heavy vehicle is supposed to keep to the right of the road. And if someone says it may have been overtaking a slow vehicle, I say to him that overtaking is forbidden at dangerous bends such as the place of the accident, and the municipality should put up traffic signs warning of this.<\/div>\n
3-\u00a0<\/span>On the central reservation there is a large number of rose bushes and ornamental shrubs across the width of the reservation, which helped block the lorry driver's view of the children's bus coming from the south. As a precaution, such shrubs extending across central reservations should be removed in general, since a child could come out from among them and cross the road, and at a height of 1 to 1.5 metres any driver on the road would be taken by surprise. There is no objection to keeping trees with relatively tall trunks that do not affect visibility on the road.<\/div>\n
4-\u00a0<\/span>Maintenance works on roads are supposed to be carried out at night with a safe closure of the road. Carrying them out in the daytime disrupts people's affairs and causes terrible accidents, as we have seen.<\/div>\n
5-\u00a0<\/span>If the contractor left the matter to drivers to act each according to their own understanding of the confusing changes in the road, then where is the body supervising the contractor's work? Where is Jabalia Municipality, which contracted with him? Where was the municipality's engineer in supervising the safety measures on the road before allowing the contractor to work? Where was the police presence at the start of the road where the maintenance was taking place, and at the end of the road closed to the north to alert those coming from the north?<\/div>\n
Where were all of these? Or are people's lives not worth our attention, so that the engineer of Jabalia Municipality might graciously supervise the safety measures on the road? So that the contractor might be so kind as to provide a few warning traffic signs and a number of fluorescent plastic cones? How much do they cost, I wonder? Are they not cheaper than the tear of the mother of the martyred child, and the anguish of his imprisoned father, and the weeping of the mothers of the children in intensive care?<\/div>\n
How do the traffic police and the emergency services allow part of a road to be closed for maintenance works without safety measures being taken, and without a police patrol present on this fast, sensitive and dangerous road, particularly as there is a deadly bend in the middle of it as I said? And was there official permission to carry out maintenance works at this time? And if there was permission, who gave it? And did they make sure that safety measures were followed before giving it?<\/div>\n
What happened has happened, but have we learned the lesson? Will we soon hear of a committee of inquiry formed by the Legislative Council, for example? Or by the Ministry of Transport, or the Ministry of Local Government, or the municipality, or...<\/div>\n
Will we hear of those responsible for the accident being held to account? Or will some contractors carry on working in our streets without regard for the value of the people who use the road? And will the municipality oblige contractors and compel them to take safety measures to protect people? And what is the position of the contractors' union on the reckless contractors who cause the loss of people's lives through their neglect and their greed?<\/div>\n
Enough recklessness, enough neglect, enough shortcoming, you who bear responsibility.<\/div>\n
It is time for the culture of \"leave it to God, citizen\", \"God will see us through\" and \"don't make a fuss\" to end, and it will not end unless it ends first in the mind and the culture of the official, who must then make the public abide by it, for God restrains by the ruler what He does not restrain by the Qur'an. It is required that everyone who shared in responsibility for the accident, directly or indirectly, be held to account and punished; otherwise dullness, neglect and indifference will remain ugly headings in the corners of our lives, embraced and preserved by a backward, passive culture that takes no proper measures and urges no effort, a culture that troubles us, kills those we love and steals our joy.<\/div>\n
By: Iyad Abu Hjair<\/div>\n
Traffic engineer<\/div>\n
25\/6\/2013<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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