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Road killer...Speed and lack of respect for law
Speed thrills, speed kills. That is the majority verdict delivered by an 'Emirates24|7' poll conducted over the last week, in which more than1,200 respondents took part.
Responding to the question: What do you feel is the biggest cause of road mishaps in the UAE?, participants were given five options.
Asked to select only one from among road rage, lack of driving skill and knowledge, no respect for the law, speeding and driving under the influence 35 per cent picked speeding as the biggest cause of road mishaps.
Surprisingly, respondents saw motorists having no respect for the law as the next biggest cause with 31 per cent picking that option.
While road rage at 11 per cent and lack of skill at 22 per cent were not seen as major causes of road mishaps, and DUI offences were pegged at just one per cent by participants.
The view of respondents reflects in a large part the reality on roads in the UAE and the concern of traffic officials as well.
Last week 16 motorists caught speeding over 200kph by the newly installed 'sniper' radars in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi.
Meanwhile, Major-General Mohammad Saif Al Zafein, Head, Traffic Department, Dubai Police, was quoted as saying that : "The 20kph allowance over the speed limit on Dubai roads will be considerably cut down."
"I believe that the 20kph allowance is not right, because on a 60kph road, this is an allowance of 33 per cent, while on a 100kph road, it is 20 per cent," he said, adding the allowance could be 7-10kph.
In the first eight months of last year 8,708 caught for speeding in Dubai.