Dubai Police target sleepy, reckless truck drivers

Dubai: Dubai Police are targeting sleepy truck drivers who drive for long and ignore rest stops, a reckless recipe that is needlessly killing innocent motorists on Dubai’s highways, said senior police officers on Tuesday.

At a press conference, Dubai Police officers pledged to step up roadside patrolling of professional truck drivers who believe they can flout the stricter new federal traffic law introduced on July 1 designed to boost road safety.

Dubai Police launched a new safety campaign on Tuesday to raise awareness among truck drivers who were blamed for causing 14 serious accidents and 15 deaths on the roads so far this year. In 2016, 49 road deaths in Dubai were attributed to the faults of truck drivers.

Across all vehicle categories in Dubai in the first six months of 2017, 75 people died in traffic accidents.

Colonel Essam Al Awar, director of Traffic Fines Collection and Traffic Services Department at Dubai Police, said the new one-month campaign that started on Tuesday aims to slash truck-related accidents and deaths on the emirate’s highways.

“Truck accidents are a major issue in Dubai. These accidents cause serious injuries and hamper the traffic flow. We want to raise awareness among drivers,” Col Al Awar told reporters.

The new campaign will see police officers actively seeking out drivers at truck rest stops on highways to educate and distribute flyers while officials from the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) will speak directly with truck drivers in registration centres.

The campaign will also approach large truck transport firms and owners to help spread the safety message far and wide, said Col Al Awar.

“We will visit big companies who have fleets of trucks in order to educate their drivers. These companies have a major role in our campaign to educate their drivers and not to push them by letting them drive for long times and distances without breaks. Many accidents happened because the driver was tired or sleepy,” Col Al Awar said.

The campaign will also include intensified police patrols on roads to spot truck drivers breaching the new traffic law which includes a Dh1,500 fine and 12 black points for non-compliance with the mandatory routes by heavy vehicles as well as a Dh1,00 fine and four black points for the entry of a heavy vehicle into prohibited areas and roads.

The increased police effort follows stepped-up patrols since last year, he said, noting that Dubai Police issued 30,664 tickets to truck drivers for traffic offences during the first half of this year while they issued 30,785 such tickets in the whole of 2016.

Col Al Awar said Pakistani and Indian truck drivers, who form the majority in this profession, caused nine and five deaths, respectively, in the first half of this year.

He said members of the public are helping Dubai Police by using ‘We Are All Police’ programme to report dangerous behaviour of truck drivers on roads.

More than 201 people used the programme in the first six months of this year as compared to 467 people in the whole of 2016.

Meanwhile, Adil Al Marzouqi, director of the Right of Way Department in RTA, said they have 12 rest stops for truck drivers on Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed, Hatta and Emirates roads and six more are under construction.

“We are in the tendering phase now for two more rest stops for trucks which will have 3-star hotels so that drivers can have rest and sleep in a hotel room before resuming the trips,” Al Marzouqi said.

He said 6,100 truck companies which have 66,846 heavy vehicles operate in Dubai.

“We have noticed many trucks operating during the banned hours on Al Khail Road and we are coordinating with Dubai Police to tackle them. Company owners must monitor their drivers and also make sure the trucks are safe to be driven on the roads,” he added.

Common offences by truck drivers

1. Not leaving safe distance between the truck and other vehicles
2. Reckless driving
3. Speeding
4. Stopping in the middle of the road
5. Entering a road without checking if it’s clear
6. Lack of lane discipline

Source: Dubai Police