Fog a major cause of traffic deaths in Abu Dhabi: Study
DUBAI — Despite a remarkable decrease in road traffic fatalities over the past 10 years, fog has emerged as a natural calamity that needs immediate intervention.
“Fog on the highways towards Abu Dhabi remains a recurrent problem and immediate intervention is needed so that drivers get the right info at the right time,” said Dr Mohammed El Sadig from the Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University.
“A recommendation is to introduce infrastructure-based collision warning systems,” he said. Other recommendations include identification and prioritisation of safety problem areas.
Dr Sadig was presenting a compilation of retrospective studies and data of over 10 years titled “Trends of road traffic injuries in Abu Dhabi, Strategies for Control and Prevention” at the Dubai International Ambulance Conference.
He also said that traffic accidents are the major cause of trauma in the country. “Until 2007, the rate of road traffic injuries (RTIs) were exceeding the global average of 19 per 100,000 population, which has now been brought down to 5 per 100,000,” he said.
Most of the data that has been collected from police reports show that RTI was the second leading cause of deaths and disabilities in the UAE and the first leading cause of death among the youth and adolescents until 2011.
In 2007, the magnitude of pedestrian and vulnerable road user deaths in the UAE constituted 25 per cent compared to 11.3 per cent in Sweden and 11.2 per cent in the US during 2005. Hence the problem constituted a major concern for public health and a sizeable burden to the UAE’s healthcare resources.
“The study was done to identify the trends during 2000-2015 and to compare the results with devel- oped countries so as to evaluate causes,” said Dr Sadig.
Dr Sadig said that the UAE’s efforts to control RTIs has finally paid off. “The experience of over two decades clearly shows that RTIs can be controlled through implementation of interventions.”
Some of the suggested interventions include setting and enforcing speed limits through smart speed cameras, managing existing physical road infrastructure in a way that increases safety (resolving black spots), setting and enforcing laws requiring seatbelts and child restraints for all occupants of motor vehicles, requiring riders of motorcycles and bicycles to wear helmets, establishing and enforcing blood alcohol concentration limits for drivers and improving vehicle safety by imposing safety standards.
He also said that injuries from road accidents are expensive with estimated annual economic costs to exceed $500 billion in the world.
He said these results will help establish the baseline facts about the problems of road and traffic authorities in the UAE and be a direction for future prevention and control.