ABU DHABI // Drivers, pedestrians and cyclists have been urged to focus on the road and avoid distractions as part of a social media campaign launched by Abu Dhabi Police.
“The Road is My Focus” encourages all road users to keep their eyes firmly on the road and to avoid talking, texting and browsing apps on mobile phones, watching in-car movies, playing games, adjusting the radio, playing loud music, grooming, eating and drinking while driving.
Abu Dhabi Police's Traffic Safety Ambassadors chose "The Road is My Focus" as UAE Together's traffic awareness campaign for January, using the hashtags #FocusedDriving and #DriveSafelyUAE on Facebook and Twitter.
UAE Together’s social media have been inundated with messages. On January 14, a Facebook postsaid: “Sending short texts while you drive only takes a second, but it could be the last second of your life.”
“You can’t download a new life. Browsing mobile apps while driving distorts your reaction time,” said a Facebook post on January 21. A series of tweets sent from UAE Together’s account on January 6 warned about the dangers of texting and sending emails.
One read: “Sending emails from behind the wheel will not lead your way to success but to the closest graveyard.”
“Whenever I overtake a slow-moving vehicle that’s going off the track, more often than not the driver is either busy talking or glancing on his phone,” said Hassan Al Jabri, a Traffic Safety Ambassador.
The 46-year-old office manager from Tanzania is one of the 100 Traffic Safety Ambassadors chosen last year from a pool of 200 applicants who were willing to help raise community awareness about road safety and traffic laws.
Almost a third of motorists admit they regularly talk on the phone and read text messages while driving, although they know it is illegal, a UAE survey suggested in September.
More than a third regularly lose concentration while driving, while nearly half of those surveyed believed there was a clear link between losing concentration while driving and being involved in an accident, according to Road Safety UAE which conducted the survey with the insurance company Zurich.
“There’s a need to raise more awareness about distracted driving,” said Mr Al Jabri. “It may be listening to the radio, using headphones that drown all other sounds, and even attending to poorly behaved children inside the car.”
Vipin Kumar Kovumal, 28, an office administrator in Abu Dhabi and a Traffic Safety Ambassador, said drivers should turn off electronic devices and stow them away.
“We should be good role models for young drivers and set a good example,” he said.
“We should speak up if we are the passenger and the driver is using an electronic device while driving. Or we can offer to make the call for the driver so his or her full attention stays on the driving task.”
rruiz@thenational.ae