Dubai Roads and Transport Authority launches road safety drive targeting trucks
Staff Report
Published: July 15, 2008, 23:40
Dubai: The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has launched a road safety campaign, which will crack down on heavy vehicles.
Working with Dubai Police, the campaign aims to reduce traffic accidents involving heavy trucks, deter reckless driving and increase respect for the rights of road users.
That's what a report in Gulf News tells us today.
It should have been done years ago, not in knee-jerk reaction to the recent tragedies. Had it been, people who have been killed would still be alive.
Let's hope that it's not just another of the short-term reactions to recent events that will disappear almost as soon as it's started.
But as the cliche has it, better late than never.
At least some action is being taken and we can only hope that it's an ongoing initiative and that we soon see some positive results.
The full report is here.
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10 comments:
Yeah, let's see how long this will last for.
I personally think, even if they do what Denmark or Norway did with the topless girls carrying the speed limit signs for drivers to slow down, they won't succeed. I totally agree with what Rosh said on the previous post. I have recently been to Egypt, vacation, well, the way people drive there is just horrific, terrifying and amazingly stupid. However, people told me there that you could hardly hear of someone dying because of a road traffic accident, weird, we should get one of the guys from Egypt's RTA (or whatever it's called there) to run Dubai's RTA.
Restless, driving styles in Egypt (and many other places) I raised in an earlier post. They don't have fatal crashes because of the slow speeds there - the problem is driving in that style here at Dubai speeds.
Weaving in and out of traffic, tailgating, no signalling - you get away with it at 15kph...but not at 150kph!
Well, that wasn't really the case, I have seen driveres there doing over 100 kph using the same driving style. I think all of them are used to driving that way, they anticipate eachother's actions and they know when to stop and when not to, it's like a bees-cell, only a messy one.
Problem in Dubai, is that everyday drives the way he/she used to when in their homeland, which can be strange for Brits for example as they RHD, Lebanese who think a Red Light is just a decoration, Indians who think driving at 30kph on SZR is just normal, etc... everybody sings his own song in Dubai.
That's the reason I said that everyone wanting a driving licence here should have to take a local test, not get an automatic UAE licence based on their home country licence.
One fairly simply thing they could do :
Post vehicle inspectors at each of the gates of Jebel Ali port. As each truck passes through the gates, stop each and every truck that has :
a) bald tyres
b) a mix of treads
c) both a and b
The vast majority will fall into category c .... when I sit behind some of the trucks I can see on average at least 2 and often 3 different types of treads on these behemoths, usually accompanied by 1 or more bald tyres. Combine that with a basic inability to drive carefully and safely (what's this glass thingy stuck in the middle of my windscreen for ? Oh I know, I can comb my hair again) and it's asking for trouble.
The only ability required from the inspector is basic vision ....
You can even fully document the process to get some wonderful ISO-accredited, world's best award that they love so much ....
If all tyres aren't the same tread - detain the truck and issue fine.
Else if all tyres don't have a minimum tread
- detain the truck and issue fine.
etc etc.
You would think it would be so simple, as far as I know these rules on tyres are already in place but the owners of the trucks seem to have a complete disregard for the law and a total lack of respect for all other road users.
Maybe it would be simpler to say that if a truck driving employee is involved in an accident that the truck owner will be held responsible. But then you get back to the fundemental issue that some people think they are far too important to obey rules and far to high up to take responsiblity.
The rules are there, its the implementation that's the problem.
Rose, I'm hardly giving away a secret when I say that lack of enforcement, in all areas of the law, is one of the major problems.
Gulf News reports this afternoon here (http://archive.gulfnews.com/nation/Police_and_The_Courts/10229314.html) that the Police have seized a minibus for "violating safety standards and overcrowding" as part of their efforts to increase safety on the roads.
At first glance this seemed wonderful - those Mitsubishi Bombers are a big menace.
Unfortunately the article then ruined it.
Whether it's poor reporting, or a lack of understanding of the problem on the part of the police (or probably both), the safety standards that were violated were that the airconditioning wasn't working.
Yes, overcrowding is a problem. Yes, they should have working air-conditioning, but shouldn't the undertaking, speeding and swerving have been the main reasons for confiscating it ? !!
Driving into work early yesterday morning (VERY early) I was chilling along at 100 (when the road is empty like that I put it on cruise control so I'm not tempted to go faster and faster!) and beside me was a police car - policeman on mobile. An AD registered batmobile went past me at half the speed of light and I turned to watch the police car take off after it ........ well what do you think??? Did it hell!
Rose, most of us will have seen similar examples of law enforcement and of police drivers being as bad as everyone else.
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