Dubai: Dubai Traffic Police said that human error was the cause of the accident that claimed seven lives on Emirates Road on Tuesday, and not the condition of the vehicle.
“Some people thought the vehicle involved was a mini-van. But it was not. It was a minibus. The driver of the minibus did not see the truck and rammed into it. The bus was in good condition and was carrying an appropriate number of people,” Col Jamal Al Bannai, deputy director of Dubai Traffic Police, said on the sidelines of the launch of ‘Summer without accidents’ campaign on Wednesday.
He said that the accident had nothing to do with the condition of the vehicle or the number of people that were being transported.
Police said the accident took place at 8am when the driver of the minibus transporting senior employees of a construction company crashed into the rear of a 70-tonne truck that had stopped in an undesignated area on Emirates Road in the Abu Dhabi direction.
The truck had stopped in the middle of the road after a minor accident with a pick-up vehicle.
Col Al Bannai noted that after reducing the speed limit for minivans — that have the capacity of 12-13 passengers — to 100km/h and reducing the number of people allowed in the vehicle, they saw a drastic decrease in the number of accidents involving such vehicles.
He said that many have stopped using min-vans to transport people, and only use them to transport equipment.
Last year, the Federal Traffic Council issued a recommendation banning the use of minivans for the transport of people. The recommendation is still pending approval.
