Education a solution to under-age driving

Dubai police chief's comments follow teen's deadly joyride.

DUBAI // The chief of Dubai Police has said that raising awareness of under-age driving is the key to combating the practice, not imposing heavy penalties on offenders.

Speaking a week after a 16-year-old boy hit and killed one pedestrian and seriously injured another before fleeing the scene, Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim said he thought education was key to preventing similar incidents.

"Awareness is the main answer to this problem, not fierce penalties," he said in an interview. "With awareness, you can change behaviour."

The boy, identified as GK from a GCC country, took his brother's Nissan sedan for a joyride and was travelling at about 200 kph when he hit two men at 8am on December 23. One of the pedestrians died at the scene. The condition of the second pedestrian was not known at the time of printing.

Lt Gen Tamim said Dubai Police carry out regular awareness campaigns to educate children on traffic safety.

"Despite the many awareness campaigns, you still find some youngsters that do not listen to advice," he said. "But awareness takes time and, with time, it can change the behaviour of generations."

The police chief said he believed the main responsibility should lie with adults who give under-age drivers access to vehicles. "In my opinion the main suspect in this case is the brother of the boy, as he is the grown-up person. He should know better than handing his car keys to his younger brother," he said.

But he also urged young people to learn from the incident. "They should take what happened to this boy as a lesson. The youngster now has to deal with this problem he brought on his whole family rather than concentrating on his studies," he said.

Lt Gen Tamim dismissed the idea of delaying the granting of driver's licences to young people caught driving without one, saying it would not be an effective tool to combat under-age driving. "On the contrary, it will just mean that they will be driving illegally and without the appropriate training for a longer time," he said.

The legal age for driving in the UAE is 18.

In 2011, 73 people were caught driving without a licence by police in Dubai, whereas 103 people were found driving without licences in 2010. The majority of those caught were young people, but Lt Gen Tamim cautioned that under-age driving should be seen as a problem and not a trend in Dubai.

He said the problem was amplified because it was difficult to catch underage drivers in the act. "If someone is driving in a car with tinted windows, for example, it can be hard to tell their age," he said.

The traffic department has put together a working plan to combat under-age driving.

If an under-age person is caught driving he is referred to the Traffic Department in Deira and his parents and/or the owner of the vehicle is also called in. The parent must sign an undertaking that the offence is not to be repeated by the child.

The car is confiscated for a certain period of time and is not released before all outstanding traffic fines have been paid. The owner must also sign an undertaking not to give his car to anyone that does not have a driving licence.