We have a duty to drive with due care and attention

Too many people are being killed and injured on our roads — and our careless attitude is to blame

The report card on road safety for the first seven months of the year across Dubai does not make for pleasant reading given that 88 people have lost their lives and a further 922 are injured. What’s more, an analysis of these sad statistics indicates that a good proportion of these deaths and injuries ought never to have occurred, with sudden swerving being blamed for one-third of those fatalities so far in 2018.

There were 1,420 road accidents, resulting in 44 deaths in vehicle crashes. That’s 44 families who are grieving the loss of mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, and 44 families changed forever because of carelessness on the emirates’ roads. Following too closely, swerving, speeding — all are poor driving habits that ought not to happen, but when they do result in accidents and deaths — as these 44 grieving families can sadly attest by their deep losses.

We live in a nation where roads are new, built to the highest engineering and safety specifications, and where huge sums of money are being invested by the week to ensure our road network runs smoothly. Police and law enforcement officials have taken every effort to ensure that the penalties for failing to follow the rules of the road are a deterrent, and that law breakers will be punished. Why 88 people (including pedestrians) should lose their lives, and when most of these fatalities ought to have been avoided, the answer can only lie in the care and attitude of drivers. Every time we get behind any wheel, we are taking our own lives — and the lives of all other road users — in our hands. That’s an onerous responsibility we all should heed every moment we’re on the road.