Dubai: Motorists have no need to worry about their safety in multi-storey car parks as structures across the city are secure and meet standard municipality regulations, a municipal official confirmed on Sunday.
Last month, Gulf News published photographs of a car that crashed through a fourth-storey wall on Al Ras Road, in Deira. The photographs showed debris thrown onto the busy street, leaving the car partially dangling from the building.
“The car crashed into the building’s external cladding, and that is why it fell off easily. Some cladding is made of glass or fibreglass, but in this case, the photographs indicate it was made of a thin layer of stone,” said Moawya Abdul Rahman, head of the structural engineering unit at Dubai Municipality’s building department.
Stone cladding is sometimes applied to concrete and steel buildings as part of their original architectural design.
The incident took place at around 8.30am and no pedestrians were reported to have been injured by the falling debris.
Abdul Rahman explained that, according to municipality regulations, multi-storey car parks are required to have at least a 40cm barrier to prevent the wheels from driving over the edge of the building. While there are usually metal barriers present, in addition to the building’s wall, the 40cm barrier is efficient and safe enough for motorists.
“Multi-storey car parks are safe and motorists do not have to worry about the building’s structure if they drive rationally and in a safe manner. Cars in parking lots are required to be driven slowly, and that is why there is no need to make metal barriers compulsory in the building,” he said.
All car parks across the city adhere to Dubai Municipality’s regulations, which clearly state there should be some form of 40cm barriers between the building and its edge, so that cars do not drive over it.
“This incident is clearly an exception because the cladding barrier was misused by such kind of unusual behaviour, and it was not designed to withstand a strong force,” said Abdul Rahman.
