Dubai Police criticise 'hostile' driver behaviour

Police say top nine offences caused the death of 35 people on the roads in the first half of this year

Col Jumaa bin Suwaidan said far too many drivers on the roads drive with 'hostility' and aggression. Pawan Singh / The National

Lack of lane discipline, talking on the phone and jumping red lights are the top three traffic offences in Dubai.

Dubai Police listed the top nine traffic offences in the first half of this year for which they issued 381,241 fines. These offences caused 35 deaths and 840 injuries.

The force did not give the total death toll for these six months.

“Failing to commit to mandatory lanes topped the list of offences with 288,037 fines issued from January to June,” said Col Jumaa bin Suwaidan, deputy director of the Traffic Department.

Ignoring lane rules is a serious offence as it impacts other motorists, he said.

“It shows disrespect to other drivers who are committed to their lanes and provokes aggressive behaviour in motorists,” he said.

Using mobile phones while driving was second on the list with 33,129 fines issued to offenders during the same period, followed by 16,892 offences of jumping red lights.

Col bin Suwaidan said 14,084 motorists were fined for failing to leave a safe distance.

Another 29,099 fines were issued for other offences, such as distracted driving, sudden swerving, stopping in the middle of the road, driving against the traffic and entering a road without ensuring it was safe to do so.

“We want to highlight the negative and hostile behaviours on the road that often lead to dangerous accidents,” said Col bin Suwaidan.

Thomas Edelmann, managing director of Road Safety UAE, said the high number of offences showed the egocentric behaviour of some motorists and their disrespect for other road users.

“The shocking number has to go down,” he said.

“It's a collective effort but most importantly individuals need to improve their behaviour. Research shows 95 per cent of accidents are caused by human error so behaviour change is the name of the game.”

He urged motorists to improve their time management skills as offensive driving is mainly caused by people running late.

“Lack of time management forces people to start their day late and rush on the road to catch up on lost time,” he said.

He also called on businesses to enact policies that demand proper behaviour on the road from employees.

“These will be similar to safe health and environment policies [put] in place by many leading companies and will help improve how employees behave on the road,” he said.

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