Dubai: There is a great responsibility on every motorist in the UAE to Make It Safe. Safe for himself or herself and for other road users.
Yesterday's accident on Business Bay Bridge which claimed the lives of two people drives home the message.
Read more: In Focus | Make It Safe
Educational campaigns and strict enforcement of traffic rules had resulted in significant success in the past two years, but the number of deaths is still much higher than the international rate. In 2010, the UAE lost 826 lives compared with 966 in the year 2009. Is it acceptable? Traffic experts believe that the current rate of traffic fatalities in the UAE is much higher than the UK or Sweden.
The comparison between the road accidents in the UAE and Sweden suggests that we could save more than 700 lives per year if we take little extra efforts to Make It Safe on our roads. Yesterday morning a horrific accident caused the deaths of a Filipino and an Indian man and the injury of their Egyptian driver when their pick-up crashed into a tanker on Business Bay Bridge.
The accident, which happened around 8.45am caused a massive traffic jam in the Deira direction of the bridge. The Pakistani driver of the tanker has been provisionally detained for reckless driving and causing two deaths.
"The 23-year-old Pakistani man was driving a water tanker. Suddenly he veered into another lane and rammed into the pick-up carrying refreshments," Chief Traffic Prosecutor Salah Bu Farousha, Head of Dubai Traffic Public Prosecution, told Gulf News.
In the second accident on Saturday, an Asian man was run over by a car and sustained injuries, and a motorcyclist was seriously injured when he was hit by a car that was overtaking in a no-overtaking area. On Friday, a motorist was injured when his vehicle was involved in a collision on Al Quds Street.
Today, Gulf News launches its ‘Make It Safe' campaign as part of its responsibility towards the safety of its readers and the nation. We will make efforts to promote safe driving and we will join hands to achieve an international safe driving record. We will try and we are sure of our success to Make It Safe.
