Dubai: Courts are being urged to come down heavily on traffic violators generally and intoxicated drivers in particular in a bid to boost road safety, the chief traffic prosecutor said yesterday.
Dubai's Traffic Public Prosecution (TPP) is determined and focused on raising traffic safety, Salah Bu Farousha, Head of TPP, told Gulf News.
"We will not surrender. We will not sit back and watch road-users succumbing uselessly. Lives of pedestrians and motorists are precious," Bu Farousha said.
"We constantly seek to increase traffic safety through acquiring tough and deterrent traffic court verdicts against errant drivers and especially those who drink and drive recklessly. We will continue to battle reckless drivers, no matter what it takes, through asking courts to impose the toughest judgments. We constantly appeal primary verdicts which we deem as not deterrent enough."
His warning came after the Dubai Traffic Court of First Instance jailed a 29-year-old Indian driver for one year and ordered him to pay Dh200,000 in blood money to the family of a Sri Lankan motorcyclist. Presiding Judge Dr Ahmad Al Mutawaa seized the defendant's driving licence for one year.
The court convicted the accused of driving recklessly and under the influence of liquor and accidentally killing the 18-year-old Sri Lankan motorcyclist.
Deportation
Records showed the accused was driving at a high speed ahead of the red light before he hit the victim, who had stopped at the signal.
The victim got squeezed between the vehicle and the traffic signal's post on the Jumeirah Beach Road.
The accused will also be deported after the punishment is served.
The chief traffic prosecutor also warned drivers against sitting behind the wheel after consuming alcohol.
"Any individual, who consumes liquor and attempts to drive a vehicle will be prosecuted similarly like an intoxicated driver. According to the traffic law, anyone who is caught attempting to drive a vehicle under the influence of alcohol will be treated as a drunk driver. We are very serious in that regard because the consequences will eventually be drastic and tragic," said Bu Farousha.
