Enforcement has to be stringent: Expert

“This is one of the most wonderful news we have had in a long time with regards to improving road safety in the UAE, especially on the back of the news that in 2016, traffic fatalities increased to 725 in the UAE, up from 675 in 2015,” Thomas Edelmann, founder and managing director of RoadSafetyUAE, told Khaleej Times.

“The introduction and stringent enforcement of the holistic seat belt law has long been lobbied for in the UAE and it is the single most important ingredient to lower the number of fatalities on our roads,” he added.

Edelmann noted that accidents happen all over the world, even in the most advanced countries.

“But the single most important device to save our lives and to protect us from injuries in car accidents are seatbelts — they can save lives in 45-60 per cent of accidents, depending on the kind of impact (frontal, side, behind, etc.) and the type of passenger (children or adults),” he said.

“We applaud the UAE Government for this step. It is the lowest hanging fruit to achieve the ambitious targets of the ‘UAE vision 2021’ to lower the road traffic fatalities from about 6/100,000 inhabitants to 3/100,000,” Edelmann underlined.

“However, the introduction of the rule is only the first step. Now, the enforcement has to be stringent and holistic. In parallel, strong educational initiatives from all concerned stakeholders must accompany this wonderful development: the media is invited to pick up on this new decree on an ongoing basis; governmental entities are invited to run educational campaigns; the education sector has to cascade the content of the decree to all their audiences (teachers, parents, students of all ages; and corporations should launch safety initiatives,” he concluded.