Abu Dhabi: Excessive speeding caused 61 deaths last year on the capital’s roads, accounting for 23 per cent of all road deaths, the Abu Dhabi Police revealed today (Monday).
Brigadier Hussain Ahmad Al Harithi, Director of the Traffic and Patrols Directorate at Abu Dhabi Police, said: “The higher the speed the less time there is to stop — which makes it more difficult to avoid traffic accidents. It is imperative that motorists respect the legal speed limits in order to avoid traffic accidents that may result in deaths and injuries.”
Around 10,000 drivers from public and private institutions attended 169 awareness programmes and lectures on road safety last year. “These programmes and lectures aim to enhance the rates of those abiding by the fixed legal speed limits that have been designated on the signage on the roads,” he added.
As of September, 2014, Gulf News reported that around 2,500 vehicles were caught at speeds exceeding 200 km/h across the capital. Meanwhile, 22,000 cars had unfit tyres during the first half of that year.
The Ministry of Interior also revealed that its Operations Room handled around 3.3 million calls last year, marking a 4.75 per cent decrease in calls from the year before.
Lieutenant Colonel Nasser Sulaiman Al Maskari, Director of the Operations Department, said that the Operations Room contained 22 systems and programmes that enable it to take on such a heavy load. He also attributed the decrease in calls to the heightened level of awareness among community members on the appropriate use of the 999 emergency hotline.
