Overtaking from hard shoulder, jumping red light top violations

Dubai: Dubai Police’s vitronic radar, also known as Al Burj radar, caught more than 51,000 violations in eleven months of this year.

Dubai Police released the statistics on Sunday but the speeding violations were not mentioned.

Overtaking from the hard shoulder topped the list of violations with 21,374 fines, jumping the red light came in second with 20,780 violations, followed by 6,512 fines for trucks not abiding by their designated lanes. Also, 3,009 drivers were fined for not abiding by traffic signs such as violating truck movement prohibition timings.

Colonel Saif Muhair Al Mazroui, Director of Dubai Traffic Police, said speed cameras reduced the number of fatalities and forced drivers to reduce speed. He added that it is part of Dubai Police’s strategy to spread radars and cameras to regulate speed on the city’s streets, as road fatalities were high in previous years.

There were also 109 fines for not wearing seat belts, 86 for using mobile phones and 19 for incorrect installation of licence plates.

Last week, television presenter Shahd Ballan of Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) sustained serious injuries in an accident on the hard shoulder. Her driver died on the spot. Ballan, 27, was travelling to Abu Dhabi when her driver pulled over on the hard shoulder to check a burst tyre. According to her colleague, as the driver was changing the tyre, three cars, all allegedly speeding, crashed into the stationary car, killing the driver and resulting in multiple fractures and internal injuries to Ballan.

The vitronic radar, which was introduced around April 2014, has the ability to record eight violations: speeding, vehicles driving below the speed limit, vehicles not leaving enough distance between vehicles, drivers not wearing a seat belt, drivers using mobile phones, heavy vehicles not abiding by designated lanes, heavy vehicles that are on the road outside their designated timings and vehicles driving on the hard shoulder.