Pedestrian fatalities at nine-year low

Pedestrian fatal accidents in Dubai have touched a record low average in the first half of 2010 reducing to 25 cases compared to 47 in the same period last year, according to statistics compiled by the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA).

Run-over accidents have hit an all-time low during the past five years as the resulting fatalities have not exceeded 78 cases whereas the number of reported run-over fatalities in the year before was 116 cases.

“Pedestrian safety indicators in Dubai reflected a huge progress in the plan of the RTA regarding the enhancement of pedestrian safety and curbing of run-over accidents in Dubai.
 
“Last year witnessed several field measures and joint awareness efforts to curb pedestrian accidents, which ranked amongst the most serious challenges facing traffic safety specialists,” said Maitha bin Udai, CEO of RTA’s Traffic & Roads Agency.

The drop by almost half in the pedestrian fatalities to 25 cases during the first half of this year meant that it was the least in the past nine years.

There were 28 pedestrian fatalities in the first half of 2002 and the number remained the same in the following year, but soared in the first half of 2004 to 49 cases, and dropped slightly in the first half of 2005 to 48 cases.

Again the number picked up to hit 57 cases in the first half of 2006 and to 59 cases in the first half of the following year. Pedestrian fatalities hit a peak of 60 cases in the first half of 2008 before falling to 47 cases in 2009.

The CEO attributed the drop in mortality rate to a host of measures introduced by the RTA as part of its traffic safety plan through constructing footbridges and subways, identifying and marking crossing points, and rolling out educative traffic awareness campaigns.

Contractors and consultants had also been ordered to deploy vehicles to shuttle their workers between the two side of the road to avoid road crossing and accordingly risking their lives.

“Pedestrian accidents on the Sheikh Zayed Road plummeted by 83.4 per cent over the past year with only two fatal accidents reported compared to 12 in 2008. This is attributed to the operation of three footbridges linking the metro stations.

On Damascus Road, pedestrians fatalities dipped by 75 per cent from four cases in 2008 to one case in 2009 following the opening of three footbridges. Pedestrian fatalities on Amman Road dropped by 40 per cent upon construction of two pedestrian crossing points.

Fatal traffic accidents in Dubai dipped from 332 cases in 2007 to 294 cases in 2008 and further to 225 fatalities last year.

RTA is planning to double the number of pedestrian bridges and tunnels by 2013. Currently there are 14 subways and 18 footbridges, including three glazed bridges constructed by RTA over the past three years in addition to those footbridges linking with most of the metro stations. 
 

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