UAE: Man Dies After Losing Control Of Vehicle, Crashing Into Mountain

An accident was reported in the Ras Al Khaimah mountainous region during mid-day around eleven. The victim of the accident was a 22-year-old Emirati man who died on the spot.

Major Ali Al Rahbi, acting director of Al Rams Police Station said that the police got a tip-off call at around 11:24 a.m. which informed them about an accident around the Ras Al Khaimah mountainous area. According to witnesses, the driver allegedly lost control of his vehicle while descending the mountain.

The vehicle lost control, swerving and crashing into a rocky slope that resulted in the individual’s immediate demise. The Police patrol team officials and an ambulance arrived at the spot and transferred the body of the victim to the hospital.

Al Rahbi also informed that the Al Rams Police station officials have received the necessary accident files to complete legal procedures.

Road Accidents Are Increasing Day By Day

A Ministry of Interior report states that in 2021, a total of 381 people died in road accidents and around 2,620 people were injured when compared to 256 deaths and 2,437 in the year 2020. Some of the main reasons for these accidents were sudden swerving, distracted driving, and a lack of proper safety distance between vehicles.                           

At the beginning of this month, the Abu Dhabi Police released a video on social media that shows a distracted UAE driver jumping a traffic signal and ramming into another vehicle. The Abu Dhabi police released the video as part of the “Safety Path” campaign which aims to sensitize the general public about the importance of maintaining attention while driving. 

On the other hand, the UAE has been trying to put strict rules into place for avoiding road accidents and mortality caused by these accidents. A recent research study published in Injury Prevention, which is a peer-reviewed publication by British Medical Journal found out that UAE’s death rates due to road accidents have fallen by two-thirds when compared to the numbers a decade ago.

From 2010 to 2019, the accident injury rates dropped from ten per hundred thousand people to 3.5. The official statistics were used by the study to analyze the results.

Thomas Edelmann, managing director of Road Safety UAE expressed his happiness about the research study results and said that UAE has been constantly trying to improve its road safety measures under the leadership of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai.

As per the ‘UAE Vision 2021’, the target figure was three per 100,000 population regarding the fatality rate in road accidents. Several new road safety measures were put in place especially from 2007 to 2017 like the black points system introduced in 2017 which gave the officials the to ban a driver if certain points have been reached because of regular road safety violations.                                                

Driving without seat belts, use of mobile phones while driving, rash driving, jumping traffic lights, drinking, driving, etc. were all now seen as strict violations, and heavy fines were collected from offenders.

Jail time has also been introduced for certain violations other than black points. According to the data reported by Road Safety UAE, the accident rate of vehicles has come down from one hundred in 2006 per 100,000 vehicles to just eleven in 2021. This is a sharp decrease of almost ninety percent.

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Edelmann also pointed out that one of the main challenges of establishing a proper driving culture in the UAE is mainly because of its composite culture that has drivers from the Gulf, Indian sub-continent, Asian countries, and the West. He said that there is a culture of road rage still exists in the UAE and we have to tackle that to create a more harmonious environment on the roads.

He also reminded us that road safety is not just the responsibility of car drivers but also of truck drivers, e-scooter, and motorcycle riders. The pedestrians are also equally responsible to follow proper pedestrian rules and be on their guard whilst moving around along the roads or while crossing them under proper safety precautions. 

Here are some basic tips that can be followed if you are met with an accident on the road. 

1. First and foremost, make sure that everyone in the vehicle is safe. If someone is injured, then immediately call the ambulance service at 998.  
2. Set up a safety warning by pressing the Hazard button and also setting up a hazard triangle near your vehicle.      
3. Inform the nearest police station about the accident and the location by calling 999. 
4. If there are some valuables or essential documents in the vehicle, collect them if there is no risk in doing so. Otherwise, wait for the police to reach the location.    
5. Once the police arrive and analyze the situation, ask them about the insurance process and initiate it at the earliest.