More than 20 young drivers died in road accidents in Sharjah last year, police say

Motorists aged between 18 and 30 involved in almost half of road crashes since the beginning of 2021

Police say young drivers make up a significant proportion of road accident casualties.

Sharjah Police are urging drivers to obey traffic rules after revealing that 24 young motorists died in road accidents last year.

Nearly 306 accidents have been recorded in the emirate since the beginning of 2021, with 147 caused by drivers aged between 18 and 30.

“It makes 48 per cent of the total number of accidents in Sharjah so far this year,” said Lt Col Mohammed Al Naqbi, director of the traffic and patrol department at Sharjah Police.

Dubai Police also released their accident data from 2019.

Officials said there were 1,360 crashes in 2019, resulting in 132 deaths and 154 serious injuries.

Of these, 875 accidents involved people in the age group 18-35 years, 64 per cent of which were caused by them.

The accidents resulted in the deaths of 77 young drivers while injuring 96 others.

To reduce the number of accidents and deaths, police across the country regularly run traffic safety campaigns.

“There are campaigns that we base around the statistics of traffic accidents, such as 'Our goal is your safety' that was launched earlier this year and reached out to a large audience,” Lt Col Al Naqbi said.

“We post traffic offences detected by police patrols or by radars on social media channels in order to create more awareness about the importance of adhering to traffic laws and saving lives.”