Dubai: Out of the ten RoadStar road safety campaign winners of March 22, two stood out.
On Sunday, Mounira Al Saleh, a Saudi master’s student at Manchester Business School in Dubai, was stopped by a police car and two other cars as she was driving her motorcycle on Jumeirah Road, after she was seen avoiding a car.
“I revved up the engine to make the driver in the car aware of my presence so he would not hit me, and then I was stopped by a police car and I was certain I would be asked about why I did that, but when I saw another two cars stop too, I knew something was up.”
Mounira, who had just got her motorcycle a month ago and who has been driving a car for four years, said that it was great to promote road safety and to include motorcyclists too, “A small mistake in a car could result in a small accident with minor consequences, but a small mistake with a motorcycle could easily lead to death.”
“Many members of my family have motorcycles and we go on a lot of road trips and after being in the back seat for years, I decided it was time for me to take the front seat,” she said.
The biannual Porsche RoadStar campaign started the activities of its 33rd edition in Dubai on Sunday and will continue until March 24, then move to Sharjah for two days, March 25-26, to reward safe drivers. The campaign, which is in its 17th year, aims at promoting safe driving and rewarding those who adhere to traffic rules in the strictest sense. A total of Dh50,000 will be given as rewards to safe drivers during the campaign as well as a certificate issued by the police of the emirate concerned.
Another winner, Mark Woodward, 39, a design company owner and creative director, coincidentally was a strong advocate of road safety.
“Over the years I have worked with the Red Cross on road safety campaigns for children and also with the United Nations,” he said.
He said that he heard about the RoadStar campaign over the radio and thought it was a great initiative, but never thought he would be chosen.
“In Dubai there are a lot of different cultures, and each brings their own style of driving to the road, that is why such campaigns are important. I try to maintain the way I drive in the UK here and abide by the rules, and avoid some of the bad habits that drivers here tend to have,” he said.
Road safety has been part of Mark’s life even from an early age, as he was his class road safety officer when he was 11 years old in school.
Shaikh Othman, Srinivas Reddy, Deanne Motiwalla, all fron India, Gregg Flynn from the United States, Abdullah, Obaid Aman and Khalid Al Hamiri from the UAE, Mohammad Imtiaz from Pakistan, Mark Woodward from the United Kingdom, Mouneera Al Saleh from Saudi and Aissa Kallah from Morocco received Dh1,000 and an appreciation certificate from Dubai Police for being safe drivers who follow traffic safety rules.
The campaign made its debut in 1998 with the Emirates Motor Sports Federation (EMSF) and, this year, the campaign is sponsored by Porsche Centre Dubai, Al Nabooda Automobiles, with RSA Insurance and EMA Lubricants as co-sponsors.
K. Rajaram, CEO of Al Nabooda Automobiles, the only distributor for Porsche in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, said, “This initiative has a proven positive impact on drivers and their circle of friends and family, with members of the public admitting to changing their behaviour and driving habits on the roads as a result of the contest. This validates our belief that rewarding and recognising safe drivers is a highly effective way of creating a culture of road safety.”
