Fujairah residents consulted over road safety measures

A series of road safety measures will be implemented at accident black spots after residents were asked to come up with solutions.

FUJAIRAH // Road safety measures will be implemented at blackspots after police put residents at the heart of their efforts to cut down on accidents.

Over the past four years, road accidents at five locations have claimed 32 lives.

In that time, seven people were killed on the Al Tawyeen-Dibba Road, while seven more perished on Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Road from Sharm to Dibba.

Six died in accidents on Qidfa Road and another six on Dadna-Dibba Road. The same number of fatalities occurred on Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Road in Masafi.

Fujairah Police’s traffic and patrol department organised a meeting to discuss the dangerous roads with residents of the areas and representatives of the public and private sectors.

Eighty people took part and, after being divided into five working parties, they suggested many improvements.

Col Ali Al Yamahi, director of Fujairah traffic police, said: “We worked on a survey which was distributed to people living by the roads where fatal accidents took place over the past four years.

“During the meeting, we discussed their suggestions and developed solutions that can be tailored to each road,” Col Al Yamahi said.

One of the major decisions was to form a committee of road planning experts from authorities to assess each blackspot.

“The implementation process will start this month,” Col Al Yamahi said.

For the Al Tawyeen-Dibba road, the right hand lane will be designated for lorries and speed limits will be reduced from 120 kilometres per hour to 100kph. Residents living near Dadna-Dibba road asked for more speed bumps and footbridges.

The committee also decided to widen Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Road with another lane, while two traffic lights will be placed on Qidfa Road.

Street lighting will be installed on Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Road and a fence will be placed to keep wild animals away from traffic.

More warning signs, speed bumps and safety barriers will be installed on the danger routes, more patrol and emergency stations will be built and additional speed cameras will be set up.

Participant Taresh Al Hamoudi, 33, an Emirati who lived in Al Tawyeen, said the consultation was useful and the decisions would help in cutting road accidents.

“This road connects many emirates with Dibba and adding more warning signs and speed bumps will be efficient, along with reducing the speed limits,” he said.