Dubai: Soon people will be able to report minor accidents at three Enoc petrol stations.
Al Rashidiya police station will train around 15 Enoc employees to report minor traffic accidents on the Dubai Police smartphone app, so people can go to petrol stations instead of the police station to avoid queues.
Brigadier Saeed Hamad Bin Sulaiman, director of Al Rashidiya police station, said that the new initiative will be tested out in three Enoc stations in the police station’s area of jurisdiction and that the training will take three months. He was addressing at a press conference on Sunday.
“During the three months of training, a police officer will be at the station at all times to ensure the staff are filling the forms correctly,” he said.
The 24/7 service will be available at three Enoc stations: Al Wasn station on Tripoli Street, Al Yamamah station on Mohammad Bin Zayed Road (Abu Dhabi bound) and the Bypass Road station, also on Mohammad Bin Zayed Road (Sharjah bound).
“We choose those three stations because most minor accidents occur on roads near them, according to our traffic statistic. The majority — 80 per cent — of traffic accidents in our area of jurisdiction are minor,” he said.
Al Rashidiya police station gets an average of 200-250 minor accident reports a day, which he said could be easily reported using the Dubai Police smartphone app if both parties are in agreement.
“This new initiative aims to raise more awareness of the app, which people can use themselves. The Enoc employees will also try to teach people how to use the app’s feature. The initiative will also help reduce the number of visitors to the police station,” he said.
Reporting a minor accident, where both parties are in agreement on who is at fault, takes three minutes, “but if they come to the police station it depends on how long it takes them to get to the station and the queue system when they get there. It may take more than an hour to report their case if the station is busy, while the workd could have been done in minutes if they used the app,” he said.
While some people are still reluctant to use the app, Brig Bin Sulaiman explained, “Some might have a smartphone but do not have internet access, and some do not have the app. This is where the service at Enoc stations would help,” he said.
When you report an accident through the app, you get the accident report through e-mail or SMS a few minutes after successfully filing out the forms and attaching the required pictures.
“We will assess this trial phase and, if the results are a success, we will recommend this to the authorities at Dubai Police, so after its approval it could be applied to various stations across the city,” he said.
Trained Enoc staff will wear a reflective yellow vest with the Dubai Police logo so people can identify them.
