Progress made on road deaths, but much to do

Road safety is improving in the UAE, but more effort will be needed to get the road toll down to that of other developed nations.

Anybody who has lived in the UAE for more than a few years is able to bear witness to the dramatic improvement in road safety. This anecdotal impression is supported by hard statistics, such as the latest news that pedestrian deaths have reduced by nine per cent over two years, showing the measures introduced throughout the country are paying dividends.

But nobody will have felt any sense of complacency because these statistics also show the UAE still has a far higher rate of deaths and serious injury on the roads than other developed nations. The continuing risks – and the enormity of the task ahead – was demonstrated tragically yesterday when a nine-year-old girl was killed as she tried to cross Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai.

This lack of complacency is behind Dubai’s spectacularly ambitious goal of having zero road deaths by 2020. The emirate is right to aim high, because every single road-related death spreads a ripple of grief and loss throughout the community, leaving friends and relatives to mourn the premature loss of a loved one. Since launching that goal, Dubai has made huge strides forward, not least in reversing the trend that saw road deaths increase by 60 per cent between 1998 and 2007. Since that peak of 332 fatalities, the rate has dropped by more than half.

The nature of such a task, be it in Dubai or in the UAE as a whole, begins with relatively big obvious targets: nearly tripling the number of speed cameras while also reducing many speed limits, increasing the fines for each infraction, assigning black points against individual drivers, reassigning police staff so more could concentrate on traffic enforcement and impounding cars whose drivers exceeded 200kph.

The goal of further reducing the toll of death and injury on the roads will be progressively more difficult, but the UAE still has obvious steps in which it can emulate other nations with better safety records.

Gulf Traffic Week kicked off yesterday with a conference in Abu Dhabi, featuring initiatives such as getting drivers to pledge to use seat belts and indicators, and to spurn speeding and using their mobile phones.

These and many other measures, including driver education, will slowly help cut the road toll in the UAE and save more families having to experience their day grief and loss.