Dubai: Jean Todt, president of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body for world motorsport, has used his Middle East tour to raise awareness for road safety in the region.
Speaking on the sidelines of his visit to Cyprus on Monday before leaving for Cairo, where he will then travel to the UAE capital for this weekend’s Etihad Airways Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Todt said of road safety in Cyprus: “It’s a very big problem.
“We cannot accept to have 1.3 million people killed on the roads and 50 million people injured every year. In a country like [Cyprus] you have more than 70 people dying on the roads and 1,500 injured.
“I must congratulate you for what you have achieved in recent years, on enforcing stricter rules on drink-driving, speeding and making the use of seatbelts and helmets compulsory, but still there are too many fatalities in your country. So I hope that my visit will be an opportunity to bring greater attention [to the issue].”
In the three years since Yas Marina Circuit’s completion, Abu Dhabi has seen a 18 per cent drop in fatal traffic accidents, saving Dh330 million, something motorsport officials will claim is no coincidence. However Todt could still use his stay here to question why one person is still being killed in an accident every 26 hours and another injured every 54 minutes in Abu Dhabi alone.
Statistics for 2011 show Abu Dhabi saw 2,280 car accidents resulting in 3,547 injuries and 334 fatalities, constituting 46.4 per cent of the UAE’s total. Of the UAE’s total eight million traffic violations for 2011 49.3 per cent were reported in Abu Dhabi.
