Campsite owners asked to monitor quad-bike use
Plan is to make riders more aware of the dangers
DUBAI // Transport authorities have asked the owners of campsites to help police the use of quad bikes to avoid needless injuries and deaths. An awareness campaign to encourage owners of tourist camps to provide safety tools to customers, was launched by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in cooperation with Dubai Tourist Police. The RTA said an extensive campaign to help avoid quad bike accidents was run. The campaign visited 23 camps across Dubai that rent quad bikes and distributed leaflets to employees and customers.
The leaflets explained safety and security conditions, they also highlighted the dangers of ignoring advice to wear bike safety gear at all times while riding in the desert.
Dubai Police Traffic Department said that nine quad-bike accidents were reported last year in Dubai. Police said about one or two people had died each year between 2013 and 2015. Last year a 20- year- old woman was killed in January.
The Ministry of Interior in Abu Dhabi revealed that 174 quad bike and three-wheeler bike accidents last year killed 19 people and injured 155.
Of those, 101 were caused by collisions, 56 were crashes as a result of mechanical failure, and 16 riders were run over by other vehicles.
In March this year a teenage girl died after the quad bike she was on crashed on the way to school. The 13-year-old from a private school in the emirate died from head injuries suffered in the crash in Al Seyouh.
Last February, a 21-year-old Emirati woman died from severe injuries in Ras Al Khaimah after the quad bike she was riding with her Emirati husband, 25, crashed. The woman, who was not wearing a helmet, died at the scene and her husband was treated at hospital for minor injuries.