‘Use sunshade to keep dashboard cool’

“This means that anything that comes in the way of the airbags is potentially very dangerous. I understand that people are concerned about their dashboards suffering from wear and tear because of heat and scratches and all of that, but all of our cars come with long-term warranty, and even today, we replace dashboards for cars that have been in service for 10 years.

“If anyone wants to ensure their dashboards are kept cool, they can always use a sunshade while their cars are parked,” he said. I advise everyone to keep their dashboards clear of any objects.”

Ali Al Barwani, head of Oman’s Road Safety Association (ORSA), also expressed concern over this issue.

“Unfortunately, this is a very worrying issue,” he said. “Many people keep bottles of water or perfume on their dashboards and the liquids in them tend to heat up in the sun. In case of an ac- cident, the caps on these could come loose, and this heated liquid could splash on people, causing serious injury.

“An even bigger issue here is that some of these are flammable, so they could catch fire in an accident, and harm people in the car even further, in addition to making it harder for the emergency crews to do their jobs,” added Al Barwani.

“If these bottles are made of glass or hard plastic and they break during an accident, they could pierce the airbags as they are deploying, which means people could hit their heads on the dashboards, causing serious fractures and other injuries.”

“I advise people not to keep anything on their dashboards,” he said. “If they need to keep things, let them do so in the seat pockets in the back, or in the dicky, because people must understand that their cars are not shops, but modes of transportation.”