Dubai: The first eight months of this year recorded 115 road deaths and 1,510 injured in 1,783 traffic accidents, Dubai Traffic Police statistics showed.
Colonel Jamal Al Bannai said the statistics cover the period from January 1 to August 31.
Out of the 1,510 injured, 135 sustained severe injuries, 449 sustained moderate injuries and 811 sustained minor injuries.
Compared with the same period last year, there was an overall decrease in the number of accidents and those injured but a slight increase in the number of deaths. In the first eight months of 2013, there were 1,898 accidents, in which 112 died and 1,688 were injured.
Of the 1,783 traffic accidents this year, 1,190 were car crashes and 212 were run-over accidents. There were 20 deaths and 226 injured in run-over accidents in the same period.
Col Al Bannai said that sudden swerving and not leaving enough space between vehicles remain the top two causes of accidents. There were 365 accidents caused by sudden swerving and 355 happened because of lack of sufficient space between vehicles between January and August.
Accidents caused by sudden swerving killed 36 people and injured 358, while accidents caused by not leaving enough space killed 22 and injured 268.
“Recently we have seen many accidents involving vehicles parked on the hard shoulder of the road. The hard shoulder should only be used in cases of real emergency and only by ambulances and police,” Col Al Bannai said.
He said that many truck drivers park on the hard shoulder to rest, which is incorrect as they should stop in a place where it’s not dangerous, such as a sand lot.
The statistics also showed that the majority of accidents took place during the night, with 937, and 846 took place in the morning.
There were 85 accidents caused by running the red light, which killed six and injured 149. Speeding caused 40 accidents, killed seven and injured 64.
