4.5m traffic fines issued in Abu Dhabi last year, but deaths dip
31% drop in road fatalities last year from 289 deaths in 2016
More than 4.5 million fines were issued to motorists for violating road traffic rules in Abu Dhabi last year, but this was 2.83 per cent less than those imposed in 2016, police said.
As many as 4,557,532 fines were issued in 2017 in Abu Dhabi, while in 2016 there were 4,690,445 fines issued for traffic law violations.
According to the Abu Dhabi Police statistics released yesterday, the number of road deaths dropped by 31 per cent last year from 2016. As many as 199 people died last year in traffic accidents, compared to 289 people in 2016.
Serious injuries also declined 4.49 per cent to 149 people last year from 156 people in 2016. The number of road accidents fell from 1,740 in 2016 to 1,533 in 2017, a drop of 12 per cent.
Brigadier Ali Khalfan Al Daheri, Director of Central Operations Sector of Abu Dhabi Police, said, “Our efforts to bring down the number of road fatalities and accidents will continue this year too. We will spread awareness among more people and work more efficiently.”
“Though the death rate in road accidents dropped considerably last year, we have to work hard to further reduce them,” Brig Al Daheri said.
“Our goal for 2017 was to achieve 7.93 road fatalities per 100,000 residents, but we could bring the number down to 5.7 fatalities per 100,000, which is considered a huge reduction,” he said. This was possible because the traffic department implemented its ‘road safety strategy’ effectively.
Most of the traffic law violations manoeuvring, tailgating, not giving way to pedestrians, speeding, violating lane discipline and jumping red signal.
The police said the cases of mobile phone use while driving and jumping red signal increased last year by 3 per cent from 2016.
Al Al Daheri said, “This year, we aim to hold lectures and awareness programmes among the community to educate them about [the importance of following] traffic rules for the safety of them and other road users. This year too, we hope to continue the same strategy to further reduce road accidents by focusing on drivers’ behaviour.” — 44.8 per cent — were committed by motorists in the age group of 18-30.
The common violations were not maintaining lane discipline, random parking, driving an unregistered vehicle and not wearing a seat belt, Brig Al Daheri said.
Speed monitoring radars captured the bulk of the law violations last year, though violations registered a drop of 2.85 per cent compared to 2016. Radars recorded 3,703,220 violations in 2017, compared to 3,811,843 in 2016.
He said most of the fines were related to speeding, adding that the major causes of road accidents and fatalities were sudden