Dubai cuts speed limit for buses to 100kph

Dubai traffic authorities have decided to cut the speed limit for buses transport company workers to 100 from 120 km per hour (kph) following a series of deadly accidents involving such vehicles, a senior traffic police officer has said.

The new speed limit has been enforced on external roads while the limit has been set at 60 kph on internal roads in the emirate, Dubai’s acting traffic police chief colonel Saif Al Mazroui told the Dubai-based daily Albayan.

He said such buses have also been told to transport a maximum nine passengers instead of 14, adding that the new rules have been distributed to all private sector firms operating in the emirate.

“We have decided to deal with these buses as heavy duty trucks as they have been involved in many fatal accidents in the emirate,” he said.

Mazroui blamed companies for such accidents because of their failure to carry out proper maintenance of their vehicles and the transport of a large number of passengers in one bus in violation of existing laws.

“Many of them also force their bus drivers to work extra hours…an exhausted driver normally loses concentration and this causes accidents,” he said, adding that some companies had been given until the start of 2013 to comply with the rules regarding limit passengers to nine instead of 14.

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