Fatal traffic accidents in Abu Dhabi emirate have fallen by 10 per cent in the first nine months of 2011 from the comparable period last year, according to statistics of Abu Dhabi Police Traffic and Patrols Directorate which revealed fundamental improvement in safety levels.
There were 263 deaths on the emirate's roads in 2011, compared with 291 last year. Number of injuries has dropped by 7 per cent, recoding a total of 1829 accidents compared with 1964 in the same period last year. While fatalities and serious injuries involved pedestrians have dropped by 22 per cent, from 173 to 107 cases
Brigadier Engineer Hussein Ahmed Al Harithi, director of ADP Traffic and Patrols Directorate attributed the decline in the accidents rate to the effectiveness of the safety and traffic awareness plans followed by the directorate.
Traffic enforcement strategy in Abu Dhabi has focused on raising levels of awareness among offenders by warning them of the seriousness of offences they have committed before issuing citations to them, he noted.
He said: last period has witnessed remarkable decline in the number of collision accidents which have dropped from 1166 to 1084 by 7 per cent, and a decline in incidents of overturned vehicles from 352 to 327 by about 7 per cent. While number of traffic fatalities and serious injuries on Abu Dhabi Al Sela highway has dropped from 131 to 89 by around 32 per cent.
Traffic fatalities and serious injuries on Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Road fell from 55 to 51 cases, while they dropped from 12 to 9 cases on the Abu Dhabi international airport road, he further added.
The Directorate has studied the causes of traffic accidents, defined the hot spots, and suggested solutions, he pointed out.
Sudden swerve of vehicles, lack of concentration by motorists, speeding, and failure to abide by lane discipline, tyres puncture and tailgating are among the most causes, he said.
Al Harithi stressed the keen interest of the directorate to increase efforts towards improving traffic safety indicators in Abu Dhabi through main five themes including engineering fields, traffic enforcement, awareness, quick response, health care and continuous evaluation of performance findings and indicators.
A total of 163 lectures and 11 traffic awareness campaigns have been implemented during the last 9 months. Of which, there were two main campaigns: together to reducing traffic accidents, and land traveling, and 8 sub campaigns most important of which were: “they don’t realize danger”, “sudden swerving”, “excessive speeding”, “yellow box”, “don’t end your life with an accident”, among others.
Last week, he noted, the directorate has set a new world record in Guinness Book for the largest traffic awareness lecture in the world, with around 2000 participants.
The Directorate’s efforts also included introducing of new Tathqeef vehicles which patrol different roads to raise awareness among drivers, stop offenders and provide traffic guidance to them, Al Harithi continued.