It is arguably the first time in the country that several heart-wrenching real life stories of road accident victims have been put together in a book to tackle road safety issues and educate people on the consequences of reckless driving.

A retired human resources consultant, Majid al Suleimany has collected more than 60 real life stories of road accident victims and their families for the 450-page book Being the Safe Driver.
Published in the US, the book looks at the rising number of road accidents and also provides technical advice from experts. “With PDO’s help I was able get and narrate several accidents with a detailed view on what caused the accidents. The book has views from a number of HSE (health, safety and environment) experts on how to be a safe driver. And I have also quoted verses from the Q’uran to show that putting other people’s lives in danger for no apparent reason is not acceptable in Islam,” said Suleimany.

He said this makes Being the Safe Driver a good handbook. “We don’t look at the accidents from an emotional level. We only see statistics in newspapers and news clipping about one more accidents. The day we start associating with it emotionally and putting faces to victims, we will be more responsible on roads.” To take a closer look and see the consequences in person, the author visited hospitals and was distraught to see people maimed for life. “It was so emotional to see children and adults with broken limbs and burnt bodies. There were so many young boys with debilitating injuries – who otherwise should have been looking at their future – languishing in hospital wards.”

He said there should be a programme to show the public what consequences the victims and their families are facing. “It could be either through documentaries or planned hospital tours.”

Suleimany is already in talks with a couple of people who could translate the book into Arabic. “The plan is to go to schools and give them a presentation on road safety and leave some books in their library.”

This is Suleimany’s sixth book, and he is expecting to launch another two very soon.

“I plan to do an official launch of Being the Safe Driver and my other two upcoming books sometime in April. This would be the first time that an Omani author is releasing three books at a time,” he said