Hard Lessons For Driving Schools

A crackdown on Dubai driving schools to curb the highest road fatality rate in the world should include new back-to-school classes to re-educate bad drivers, says a UK-trained driving instructor.

In a report submitted to the Roads and Traffic Authority and obtained by XPRESS, Adam Bin Ali Kechil, 42, former training director at Dubai's Belhasa Driving School and a former UK Department of Transport instructor, says that licensed drivers who did not receive initial proper traffic training in Dubai would benefit from a second round of modernised driving instruction.

Kechil has proposed to the RTA an improvement scheme in which “drivers or riders who have been involved in a blameworthy incident or accident would be offered a driving course as an alternative to possible court prosecution or getting black points on their licence''.

Officials with the RTA declined to comment when asked whether the Authority believed the scheme would cut down on Dubai's traffic fatality rate.

The UAE witnesses 21.5 road deaths per 100,000 annually, compared to six road deaths per 100,000 people in Europe. “It's officially the worst traffic fatality rate on the planet, according to the World Health Organisation,'' said Kechil.

With such high numbers combined with nightmarish traffic jams, the RTA has announced that it is cancelling the licences of smaller driving schools that are deemed as not meeting federal driving standards.

Shehab Hamad Bu Shiyhab, who heads up licensing for the RTA, said in a statement that 30 of Dubai's 180 driving schools were being reviewed for possible licence cancellations this year.

Another problem according to Kechil is a lack of standardised testing with driving schools using many different tests.

“What we're pushing for is one united driving test for one United Arab Emirates,'' he said.

Dilawer Shah, operations manager of Dubai Driving School, agreed something needs to be done to standardise the industry across the country.

Shah said that any push to order licensed drivers, caught breaking the law, back into traffic school to brush up on their skills would be welcomed in Dubai.

Traffic By The Numbers

44 people died as a result of accidents caused by speed and there were 148 accidents in 2006

451 vehicles on the road for every 1,000 people in dubai

1,445,000 traffic violations in dubai in 2006

2.7 million cars expected on the city's roads by 2020