Written by Rima Youssef



Translated by Daisy Khalil



NNA - Amid huge anticipation of the Russian "Alexa" storm which took over the political, social and economic news in the country, the Lebanese people's concern doubled, building on their bad experience with road floods following every rainfall.



To avoid citizens' drowning in highway pools in various areas of Lebanon, the Ministry of Interior established - upon a joint decision with the Ministry of Information - a twitter account for traffic control, named the Traffic Management Center, in collaboration with the National News Agency.



Since "prevention is better than a pound of cure", the Center's Twitter page posted more than 25 news items per hour covering the road conditions in all Lebanese regions, and managed, within three days, to draw 2000 followers owing to its accuracy and speed, with the help of the NNA.



The Traffic Management Center also succeeded to become, in a short period of time, the only source of news to all news agencies and media means.



Traffic Managemnet Center officer, Captain Michel Motran said the goal of creating this Twitter account was to facilitate citizens' transportation.



"The Room works within the scope of Beirut Administrative area and takes roads information in other mountain regions from the operations room of the Internal Security Forces Directorate (...) in order to publish traffic safety awareness that helps reduce traffic accidents which sadly cause more than 1,000 deaths a year," he said.



Motran added that the account is being managed by a work team joining the National News Agency and the Managemnet Center, which provides 24/7 traffic details coverage.



For his part, the Director of Traffic Management, engineer Farajallah Srour considered that "social media means play a key role in delivering information to a large segment of citizens, especially young people carrying smart phones that help them access their Twitter accounts at any moment."



Alexa is coming to an end, and fortunately, it did not ravage the country which already stands at a tipping point amid ripping polarization and conflicts.



==========D.K.