Raising Awareness - Car Accidents in the UAE - Assignment Example

Raising Awareness: Car Accidents in the UAE Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name (23, 02, 2009) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………. 2. Causes…………….……..……………………………………………………………... a) Swerving b) Crossing lines c) Speeding d) Weather conditions e) Overtaking f) Mobile phones 3. Target audiences……………………………………………………………………….. 4. Objectives……..………..……………………………………………………………… 5. Discussion……………….……………………………………………………………... 6. Raising awareness…….………………………………………………………………... Raising Awareness: Car Accidents in the UAE Introduction The Ministry of Interior’s traffic department released figures according to which there were 6,813 road accidents in the UAE during 2007. That resulted in 829 victims and 10,526 injuries. This report is an alarming one but it is known that UAE has the worst records for fatal accidents in the world. The apparently casual and precarious driving habits of motorists in UAE is very disturbing. The drivers behave in an appalling manner and that is the cause of such accidents. Although in UAE there are 2 dangerous drivers for every 10 safe ones, the range of distance travelled by the dangerous ones threatens the lives of hundreds of people due to their reckless driving. Driving behaviour is chiefly due to the person’s outlook and personal values. An irresponsible driver does not value his own life like others do and this is clearly observable in the statistics of many fatal road accidents. The majority of such drivers are young and relaxed people; their age ranging from 18 to 40 years. Causes There are several reasons that consequently lead to so many accidents in UAE. Swerving One of the reasons of accidents is swerving. Daily at least five vehicles are seen swerving between lanes which poses as a danger to the driver as well as others. Some motorists do not consider the speed at which the traffic is moving and they drive as if in a puzzle. One single wrong move by some innocent driver can easily make his car be hit by a reckless driver who would be driving at neck-breaking speed. Crossing lines One more reason is crossing the forbidden yellow lines in Dubai. These lines are there for safety reasons and it is not allowed to drive beyond these lines on a road. However, several motorists do not pay heed to this law and thus it results in accidents. Speeding Another and the most obvious cause is speeding. Every vehicle can be driven at high speeds as they are tested for this. However, due to certain reasons this can prove to cause mishaps. For example, there can be a possibility that the roads are slippery, there is solid debris on the road or that there is not a safe distance between the vehicles. When the motorists are driving at such high speeds and they suddenly slam their brakes, the result can be very hazardous. This is because the vehicles behind that car may not be able to stop at once and that would result in a collision. Also, in a panic the driver behind can accelerate instead of braking and that would lead to very drastic effects. Weather conditions Accidents are also caused due to weather conditions. There may be fog and so the motorists might not have clear visibility, particularly in morning, and thus it is possible for an accident to occur especially in the case of reckless drivers. Gulf News reports an accident that occurred due to poor visibility and the irresponsibility of the drivers. This accident occurred on the Abu Dhabi highway near Ghantoot and resulted in 5 deaths. Because of this there were huge blockages during rush hours as the highway had been closed for five hours. Overtaking Incorrect overtaking is yet another cause of accidents in UAE and it is one of the main causes. According to traffic officers this factor claims hundreds of lives each year. In the year 2007 more than 19,400 traffic fines had been issued due to his offence. It also resulted in 233 people dead and 93 accidents. This issue can be correlated with the ego problem. When someone overtakes another driver, his ego is hurt and thus he competes to overtake that person leading to accidents in the case of incorrect overtaking. Mobile phones Motorists using mobile phone also pose a threat to their lives as well as those of fellow drivers. According to a Dubai based study, the motorists who use mobile phone while driving are four times more probable to be involved in accidents than those who do not use it. According to the RoSPA: “The ‘Motosafe’ study carried out under the supervision of the UK’s Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) claim that using mobile phone greatly increases the danger on the roads to the driver, passengers and other motorists”. When the motorists answers calls during driving he is subjected to stress and distraction which may cause accidents. In the UAE holding a mobile phone in your and while driving is a punishable offence and hands free devices are strongly encouraged. These are only a few reasons and the dangerous ways of driving that subsequently lead to dire consequences. Target Audiences The main people involved in car accidents happen to be young drivers. The UAE community blog reports: ‘Drivers from the age group 18 to 27 have been held responsible for 37% of deaths.’ The Arabian Business (2009) reports that Major General Dahi Tamim, when speaking on car accidents in UAE, said that half of the deaths on Dubai’s roads in 2008 were caused by drivers who were under 30 years old. He further added that out of total, 132 drivers that were at fault were those between the age of 18 and 29. This news shows that in the UAE motorists under 30 years are more at risk of dying in car accidents; or rather more responsible for causing accidents. Arnett (2007, pp.1042) states that ‘…the most significant risk behaviour for adolescents in the UAE is death or injury from car accidents.’ Arabian business reported in 2008, July the police revealing a report of death crash statistics. This report mentioned Colonel Hamed Adeel Al Shamsi who is the Director of Traffic and Patrol Department. He said that the rise in the number of road accidents is due to the increasing population of Abu Dhabi. He also said that the ‘predominant age group in these accidents are between 18-25 years old who have a fascination with fast cars’. The National (2008) reported that the police is going to look into the so many available videos that are posted on websites. These videos show young people of UAE driving wildly on roads. These videos show young drivers performing stunts in car parks that can turn out to be vey dangerous. In some videos the accident scenes have been captured. These videos emphasized on the subculture of dangerous driving prevailing in teenagers and young men. The officials at the UAE motorsport industry have shown great concern on the fact that though efforts are undertaken to stop reckless driving, it is not enough. All these correlate to the fact that car accidents in UAE are more often caused by younger as well as middle aged motorists than the older and mature ones. Objectives Dubai is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and the authorities are trying hard to control the alarming number of accidents that continue to claim the live of civilians. Because of this every possible action should be taken in order to instruct the drivers and make the roads safe. The Prime Minister and Vice-President of the UAE, Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum has called for measures to be taken that would help decrease the number of accidents. He has asked the other authorities, like the Dubai Police and Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to sternly respond to the traffic offenders. SAFEX is the World Driving Training Conference. It convened its 2006 session in Dubai at the Dubai Police Officer’s Club in March. SAFEX 2006 was organized by Said Ahmed Belhasa. He is the Chairman and Managing Director, BDC. He works on this issue of car accidents in UAE and aims to reduce car accidents in Dubai. Here, 877 accidents have been recorded in just seven months of 2005. That resulted in 125 deaths. This conference is held after every two years and the aim of this conference is to boost driver training practices. It does this by inviting a group of experts who discuss teaching initiatives and global best practices. All this directs to reduce accidents related to accident and injury. Motion Trends (2005) reports: “Speaking at the press conference, Saif Ahmed Belhasa, Chairman and Managing Director, BDC, said, “Promoting driving standards is a central tenet of BDC’s driving ethos, and we are very pleased to welcome the positive step of holding SAFEX 2006 in Dubai. The international conference will help us identify areas of improvement in driver training, raise awareness of the dangers of aggressive driving, look into post-test training for young drivers, and work towards international recognition and harmonization of driver training practices in the interests of minimizing road accident-related loss. We will also be looking to raise the profile of eco and green driver techniques to encourage energy conservation, and highlight the risks of alcohol and drug abuse for drivers.”” The International Association fro Driver Education was founded in 1957. It is the only world-wide organization that represents the concerns of driving school owners and connected groups. The IVV has put into practice a number of new educational methods which disclose the main issues that would help increase driving safety. Belhasa Driving Centre (BDC) was established on October 13, 2001. It is the new name for Dubai Modern Driving Institute. The driving centre has perceived a rising growth during the last few years. BDC has placed new standards to provide training courses for light motor vehicle, heavy vehicles, defensive driving, desert driving, forklift safety operating and motorcycle. BDC provides with different specialized courses that include Incident Avoidance, Chauffer course, Anti car hi-jacking, etc. Other than these, there is Hertz UAE which is trying to prevent accidents. It is the world’s largest rental company and it started operating in the UAE in 1993. In 2008 Hertz UAE hastened its progressing safe driving campaign. This was being done in order to help reduce fatal accidents in UAE. Discussion There is a dire need for raising awareness about the prevalent car accidents in the UAE. As we have mentioned above, the number of car accidents in the UAE is alarming with youngsters and middle-aged people mostly being the victims. It is extremely necessary to prevent these accidents by educating people about the issues of driving as well as to train them and give courses on driving. This would definitely help in saving many lives and prevent families from being broken up due to fatal car accidents. Apart from the life-saving factor another reason for the need to raise awareness is the fact that accidents cost money. The OhmyNews reports that the Emirate of Dubai loses 4.8 billion dirhams per year due to traffic congestion and the daily accidents. That makes up to $1.3 billion. There are more than 50 road accidents received daily in the Rashid hospital of Dubai. Of these 50 cases about 30 are serious in which the victims have suffered head injuries. Only Rashid hospital is permitted to treat accident victims and so the emergency and accident ward of this hospital stays busy all the time. The major reason for the car accidents is associated with the wrong practices and habits that the drivers have. Thus it is necessary to organize public awareness programs that would help in changing these habits and would spread in the society the right driving culture. Recently a report was published in The National (2009) which related that last year three out of four applicants failed in the driving test. This is shown in a report by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). The reason may be due to the fact that RTA has raised the standards of examination. For example, in the last three years 40 driving school were closed because they were not providing with the proper training. The RTA will also probably increase the time that is allotted for testing the drivers. This would be done so that the examiner can fairly assess the level at which the trainee stands and determine his skills of driving. The RTA report also related that there is still a great problem in the driver discipline in Dubai as well as in other states. However, there were obvious signs of enhancement. VicRoads has been working on the issue of training drivers. It has skilled 32 driving trainers and informed them about the appropriate ways of communicating the information to trainees. VicRoads manual would be given to all instructors. This would ensure consistency about the methods of teaching driving rules. The examiners are also being trained as this is essential for the training of public. All these methods have turned out to be effective. This can be said because of the fact that last January 24 people died due to car accidents. This year it was 19. Also, the number of road fatalities in February 2006 was 332 while in February 2007 it went down to 294. This shows that if some programs are really undertaken to help prevent car accidents, they would certainly be very successful. All it needs is sincere efforts and hard work. If such efforts are continued with more diligence, with time death toll due to car accidents will surely decrease. Another thing that can be done by the authorities is for them to not allow those people to obtain performance cars who have just passed their driving tests. This would give them time to practise on slower and easily handle able cars. In this way they would get used to driving and would not cause as many accidents as they would if they immediately started on performance cars. It would save a lot by raising awareness over this issue. Hertz, the largest rental company of the world, played its part in creating awareness about driving accidents. Hertz selected five customers every month and offered to give them workshops of group meditation and relaxation. The workshop was conducted by a Dubai based teacher, namely Hilary Adele. These workshops focused on breathing techniques that helped people in staying calm during driving, instead of getting stressed out. According to the campaigners, just a couple of hours of such training allowed the participants to become calmer and more focused while driving. Others reported being able to sleep better at night. This shows how easy it is to change the people’s point of view about driving and steer them to the right direction. Raising Awareness The government of UAE has been trying to reduce car accidents in the state. Campaigns have been set up in order to help drivers become aware of the danger they are in when driving. For example, as Gulf News (2008) reports: ‘A Gulf Traffic Week was organised throughout the GCC to focus on the issue under the slogan "Wrong Overtaking Kills"… The locations for the campaign include the Marina Mall and Al Mawakeb School. A game has been designed to educate drivers about the new traffic law and black points.’ Various means have been employed to raise awareness about car accidents. These include television, poster and radio campaigns, web pages, etc. they raise awareness about matters related to driving such as drunk driving and speeding. These campaigns support the Government’s safety programmes whose goal is to reduce car accidents and the fatalities caused by them. Although much has been done there is still room for further actions to be taken that would lower the rate at which accidents take place in UAE. The above proposed programmes can be undertaken further and worked at. We can advertise more on television concerning the issues of driving and what preventive measures people can take in order to avoid accidents. Such advertisements need to be catchy and should show the hazards that people are involved with when they are not driving properly. The advertisements should be shown frequently. Apart from advertisements, the television can also be used to produce talk shows that can be presented to people. These talk shows can discuss the improprieties of rash driving and the drastic consequences. The people involved in car accidents can be interviewed and they can relate their experiences and point out the reasons that lead to the accident they had been involved in. Other than television, use of internet can also be made. Various web sites can depict the results of accidents and help raise awareness. Issues causing accidents can be clearly written and made accessible to everyone. Posters and leaflets are yet another way that the public can be made aware of car accidents. These can be colourful so that people are attracted to them and should be brief so the public does not hold off reading it. Studies concerned with car accidents, for example findings that suggest the link between using mobile phone while driving and accidents, can be published and made available to common man. They can be made conscious of the rising number of accidents occurring in UAE. This would also raise awareness. CDs and DVDs can also be produced using similar information. The DVDs can include interactive softwares that would allow people to judge over the issue. For example, there can be games that would highlight the causes of accidents and make people see how they avoid the unwanted. Other than these means, mock car crashes can be staged. A mock car crash was staged in North Texas in 2007 to raise awareness over drunk driving (North Texas Daily, 2007). Another was held at Fieldstone Secondary School. In this way the people will actually see the incident and as graphic ways are more effective as it allows the people to actually experience the moment. This would also allow the police to practise the techniques required during a real incident. The people would also see how the incident is handled when a similar accident occurs. This would stress on the dangers involved when driving without appropriate training or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. In this way the public would be more ready to undertake preventive measures and avoid accidents. Bibliography Arabian Business. 2008. Police report reveals death crash statistics. [Online]. Available at: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/525183-police-report-reveals-death-crash-statistics [Accessed February 23, 2009]. Arabian Business. 2009. Inexperienced drivers cause 89% of Dubai crashes. [Online]. Available at: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/544524 [Accessed February 23, 2009]. Arnett, J.J., 2007. International Encyclopedia of Adolescence: A Historical and Cultural Survey of Young People Around the World. Illustrated ed. London: CRC Press. Gulf News. 2008. Horrific accident on Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway near Ghantoot. [Online]. Available at: http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/traffic_and_transport/10196597.html [Accessed February 23, 2009]. Gulf News. 2008. Horrific accident on Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway near Ghantoot. [Online]. Available at: http://archive.gulfnews.com/nation/Traffic_and_Transport/10195565.html [Accessed February 23, 2009]. Motion Trends. 2005. World Driver Training conference: To address high traffic accidents rate. [Online]. Available at: http://www.motiontrends.com/2005/2005csm/m10eng/dubai/safex.shtml [Accessed February 23, 2009]. North Texas Daily. 2007. RAs stage mock car crash to raise awareness of drunk driving. [Online]. Available at: http://media.www.ntdaily.com/media/storage/paper877/news/2007/03/09/News/Ras-Stage.Mock.Car.Crash.To.Raise.Awareness.Of.Drunk.Driving-2770632.shtml [Accessed February 23, 2009]. OhmyNews. 2006. Road Accidents Alarming Dubai Government takes measures to lower death rate. [Online]. Available at: http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=326977&rel_no=1 [Accessed February 23, 2009]. RoSPA. (n.d.). Dubai – Stop the talking. [Online]. Available at: http://www.rospa.com/drivertraining/news/dubai_driving.htm [Accessed February 23, 2009]. The National. 2008. Reckless driving flaunted on internet. [Online]. Available at: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081120/NATIONAL/828554242/0/NEWS [Accessed February 23, 2009]. The National. 2009. Three in four fail Dubai driving test. [Online]. Available at: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090215/NATIONAL/238282536&SearchID=73346171293714S [Accessed February 23, 2009]. UAE Community Blog. 2007. Car Accidents in the UAE. [Online]. Available at: http://uaecommunity.blogspot.com/2007/03/car-accidents-in-uae_7558.html [Accessed February 23, 2009]. Read More