AD Police to try Alternative punishments for minor offences

In an effort to modernise the policing methodology, the Abu Dhabi Police is considering implementation of Alternative Punishments for minor offences.

As per directives from Interior minister HH Lt.General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a committee has been formed to study the implementation of the project. A Police delegation headed by Lt. Col. Saif Obeid Al Khuyayli will leave this week on a multi nation tour to study the community policing existing in various countries.

The Tour will cover US, Canada, Britain, Netherlands, Japan, Australia and Singapore.

Alternative punishments vary from country to country, ranging from an effort to rehabilitate the offender to a decision to hold the offender accountable or to recompense the victim. WAM

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Abu Dhabi will introduce paid parking in May

Abu Dhabi is to introduce paid parking in the city for the first time as early as May, in an attempt to encourage drivers to use the public transport system and rely less on cars, an official said on Monday.

More than 2,500 parking metres are to be installed, with prices fixed at one or two dirhams per hour, depending on location, director general of Abu Dhabi Municipality Juma Al Junaibi said in an interview with UAE daily Gulf News.

71,000 parking spaces had been identified across 43 sectors of the city, including 5,000 spaces in underground car parks, Al Junaibi told the newspaper. “However, studies show that during peak times there is a need for over 100,000 spaces,” he added.

According to Al Junaibi, paid parking will be restricted to commercial areas, with the first phase of the project covering four sectors around Hamdan Street and Khalifa Street.

Drivers will be able to pay using mobile phones, cards, or coins in any of the six GCC currencies. Permits will also be accessible online.

The new system, described by the British Parking Association as the world’s biggest, will be operated by an “internationally-known private firm,” but monitored by the municipality, Gulf News reported. Source

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Mobilisation of all resources

Abu Dhabi police has swung into action immediately after the horrific accident, which took place on Abu Dhabi-Dubai Highway, Lieutenant General Saif Abdullah Al Shaffar, Undersecretary of the ministry of interior told Khaleej Times.
Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of interior had ordered mobilizing of all resources, personnel, ambulance vans and civil defense equipment, to rescue the injuried people and rushed them to the nearby hospitals, he said. Lt. General Shaffar said Lt. General Shaikh Saif also called for using the well-equipped helicopters when the heavy fog began to gradually fade away.

The ghastly accident took place due to over speed and drivers unaware of the bad weather, and the heavy fog which enveloped the place when the incident took place, he noted.

The speed on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway is 140 kilometre/hour, and motorists should abide by that limit under normal weather conditions, but not to drive at such a speed when it is foggy, and this exactly what those who were involved in the accident did, he said.

The majority of the drivers who were apparently caused the accident were speeding, and driving without paying attention or driving carefully, he said without naming or identifying them.

The ministry of interior is intensifying its efforts to reach the Arab and foreign expatriates, who are unaware of traffic rules to educate them on how to drive in foggy, rainy weather and other bad climatic conditions, he said . He said Police would beef up its education campaigns through print, audio-visual media with multi-languages of foreign communities in the country, he noted.

We would also work to interact with contracting companies and other establishments to raise the sense of awareness of their drivers on traffic rules, he said.

The accident had revealed that many of the said categories lack the sense of traffic rules, he disclosed.

Succinctly, he said, we are in need of facilities to spread awareness among motorists, and without them, our efforts and the government will not be strongly felt regarding the improvement of roads and their related services. On the plan of constructing an alternative road to avoid the traffic disruption on the road linking the capital and Dubai as a result of similar accidents, he said there are already alternative roads the policemen had ordered the motorists to use so the vehicular traffic could flow smoothly.

In America and other advanced countries accidents brought traffic to standstill, and this what happened here yesterday (Tuesday), but under such circumstances our main job was to rescue the people and rush the injured to hospitals as well as putting out the fires to ensure the public safety on these roads, he added. Source

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Big decline in traffic violations

The number of serious traffic violations reported during the five days after the amended federal traffic law and the black points system came into force on March 1 went down countrywide, constituting a decline of more than 90 per cent in some violations, according to comparative statistics released by the General Department of Traffic in the Ministry of Interior.

Colonel Ghaith Hassan Al Za’abi, Director of the General Department of Traffic, Ministry of Interior, pointed out that there was a noticeable fall in the traffic violations related to speed limit of 60km/h. From the previous 548 violations recorded in last five days of February, the number slumped to a mere 20 violations, a marked decline of 93 per cent.

The violations related to jumping the red signal, too, were a mere 20 cases, almost a 90 per cent decrease from the 212 violations.

While reckless driving accounted for 99 violations during the last five days of February, only 17 violations were recorded during the first five days of the current month, a decrease of 82 per cent.

The number of dangerous overtaking violations by trucks dropped from 58 to 17, while the total so-called ‘dangerous traffic violations’ slumped from 999 to 133. Source

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UAE celebrates Gulf Traffic Week

Under the patronage of HH Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, minister of interior, the UAE will celebrate the 24th Gulf Traffic Week, which begins Sunday March 9, under the theme (Wrong Overtaking is deadly).

In Abu Dhabi, the activities, in which a number of government agencies will participate, will be conducted at Marina Mall with the attendance of high-ranking police officers. The activities will include also visiting traffic patients at hospitals, theatre shows and exhibition besides delivering traffic awareness lectures at universities.

Similar activities will be conducted at Al Ain and Sharjah also. (WAM)

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20,67,000 traffic violations reported in 2007

As many as 20,67,000 traffic violations were reported in 2007, according to Major Saif Al Mazrouie, Deputy Director of the General Department of Traffic, Dubai Police. Of these, 17,000 were violations related to trespassing of car parks designated for people with special needs.

“This figure is massive if compared to the number of parking lots allocated for this category of people,” said Major Al Mazrouie.

He noted a total of 2,000 car parks are earmarked for the handicapped all over Dubai, and it is supposed to increase so as to keep up with the rise in the number of shopping malls, public parks, and markets.

The figures came to light in reply to an inquiry by Khaleej Times about the phenomenon of trespassing by employees of local departments and ministries on the parking lots designated for people with special needs.

The signs installed in the fenced car parks at the local departments and ministries that denote they are earmarked for people with special needs, or even the white signs painted on the ground of the parks, have not deterred the employees who think they could not be given a ticket on the grounds that the police patrols have no power to enter such car parks as they are private parking lots.

Khaleej Times lensman had taken photographs of the car parks belonging to the Ministry of Education where the employees encroached the car parks marked for people with special needs, a conduct that prompted the leaders in the ministry to alert their employees not to occupy such car parks.

Major Al Mazrouie clarified that the police patrols do not have the authority to visit the private car parks owned by local departments or ministries which come under their jurisdiction.By the next month, parking laws are likely to be amended and police patrols will be authorised to enter car parks of private property, even in the free zone.

Salah bu Frosha, head of the Traffic Prosecution in Dubai, said the traffic rules currently in place do not apply to private parking zones.

He, however, pointed out that by the next month, under an amended traffic law police patrols will be empowered to handle violations in private parking areas, specifically in the ministries and local departments complexes. Source

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The Ministry of Interior aims at reducing the traffic accidents in 2008

The Director of Traffic Department in the Ministry of Interior, Colonel Ghaith Hassan Al Zaabi, has said the ministry's strategic plan for the year 2008 aims at reducing traffic accidents.

Col Al Zaabi said the rate of traffic accidents in the UAE was higher as compared to the advanced countries. The accident mortality rate in the Western countries is 5-6 deaths per 100,000 people.

In contrast, the rate of deaths caused by accidents in the UAE last year hit 20 for a population of 100,000.

He said that the focus of the Gulf Traffic Week this year, scheduled for March 8-14, will be on those who overtake from the wrong side, particularly on the highways where high speeds result in accidents, leading to deaths and injuries besides damage to cars and public property.
The traffic week's slogan 'Wrong overtaking... Killer!' aims at raising awareness among drivers in the Gulf states of cooperation on the dangers of overtaking. Source

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Truck drivers violating laws face deportation

Heavy vehicle drivers who choose to ignore traffic laws will be deported from the country, an official has warned.

Colonel Humaid Odail Al Shamsi, director of the Traffic and Patrols Department at the Ministry of Interior (MoI), said that truck drivers who fail to properly load materials like debris, sand, and gravels they are transporting will face deportation, while their vehicles will be seized for a month.

The official also clarified that if drivers of heavy vehicles rented by contracting firms are found guilty of violating traffic rules, the owning transport companies have the right to sue the contracting companies and claim compensation for the damages.

Col. Al Shamsi made this statement prior to launching an intensive inspection campaign of heavy vehicles plying on the roads in Abu Dhabi emirate. The campaign is scheduled to kick off today (Thursday).

Brigadier Nasser Al Nuaimi, director general of MoI office, said an administrative order to this effect would be enforced with effect from today.

As part of the campaign, Abu Dhabi Police started deploying traffic patrols on highways, internal roads, exits and entry points of the capital as well as in Al Ain city. Source

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1053 traffic accidents claimed in 2007

The Black Point System on monitoring traffic rules and regulations has been finalise and will be enforced after endorsing its executive-bylaws, according to a senior official.

A three-six month long awareness campaign will precede the implementation of the system, said Lieutenant General Saif Abdullah Al Shafar,

Under-secretary of the Ministry of Interior. Lt. Gen Al Shafar assured that clear strategies have been chalked, in cooperation with concerned institutions to reduce the traffic accidents and morbidity cases resulting from accidents mishaps. He said that of the devised plans, is to increase the public awareness initiatives as well as the educational programmes on mortality and morbidity resulting from violating traffic and road safety rules. Source

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