The Central Traffic Department campaign encouraging the use of seatbelts and child seats is to be welcomed.

The high number of road-related deaths in Jordan and injuries is shocking. Yet a glance at cars waiting to move at traffic lights or roundabouts shows that many drivers and passengers do not wear seatbelts, and few cars even have them in the back.

Neither are there any in most buses. Recently I had a hair-raising ride to Wadi Musa in a minibus. The only seat available was the very front one, which had no seatbelt. I felt most unsafe.

Perhaps it should be made compulsory to have seatbelts for the front seats of all buses, if not for all the seats as in a plane.

I was always led to believe that whenever there is a problem to be solved, in any context, one has to get to the root of it. The root of this problem would seem to be the driving schools for, although they teach people how to handle a car, they do not teach road manners or commonsense safety measures, such as using seatbelts and child seats.

Bigger fines are required for offenders. This problem should not be taken lightly. It is serious and involves lives.

While on the subject of traffic, I think it is high time that traffic lights were put back at the 7th Circle. The tunnels and the new bridge at Marj Al Hamam did not solve the problem of severe congestion.

Chris Larter,
Amman