H.E. Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of Roads & Transport Authority (RTA), stated that traffic awareness and safety were pivotal points of RTA business, as manifested in RTA vision which sets the principle of ‘safety’ before ‘smoothness’ in the provision of “Safe and Smooth Transport for Allâ€. “RTA has conducted the required studies for developing an integrated traffic safety strategy; which is anticipated to reduce traffic accidents fatality rate to levels comparable to those prevailing in the world’s best cities by 2015â€.
In a speech marking the launch of the GCC Traffic Week; which is held this year under the theme of “Beware of other people’s mistakesâ€, Al Tayer said: “RTA believes that boosting traffic education and diffusing the awareness among all road users is a community duty that cannot be complemented without the concerted efforts of various public and private entities all segments of the community, especially parents. Based on this, RTA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Interior to boost the existing strategic partnership relationships in an effective manner to curb traffic congestion, traffic accidents & run-over cases, and traffic education by placing them on the top of the priority list of both bodies. Maintaining effective traffic safety system on roads requires close cooperation with all stakeholders such as the Ministry of Interior, RTA, Police General HQs in the UAE, Civil Defence Directorates, Ambulance, Education Sector, and Non-Government Organizations.
“The excellent cooperation and coordination between the RTA and the Ministry of Interior, Dubai Police General HQ and Driving Institutes has yielded a drop in traffic accidents fatality rate in the Emirate of Dubai from 21 cases per 100,000 of population in 2005 to about 12.7 cases per 100,000 cases of population in 2009 i.e. the drop rate was as high as 40%; which is an excellent achievement judging by international safety standards.
“RTA is exercising a strict audit at various designing & construction phases of all its projects and developers projects to ensure their compatibility with RTA-approved standards besides the regular inspection on the existing roads. RTA has rectified more than 120 Black Spots; i.e. areas witnessing recurrent traffic accidents. It also carried out studies for construction of footbridges and more than 100 pedestrian crossing points, besides examining the provision of speed reduction devices at areas where there are schools and mosques. RTA has also prepared several traffic safety engineering guides at the highest international standards and carried out several studies to address the frequent traffic problems such as pedestrian accidents, excessive speed and Federal Traffic Law. RTA traffic safety efforts in the infrastructure projects were culminated by winning the first position at the GCC level during the GCC Traffic Week 2009†added Al Tayer.
He called on citizens and residents of the UAE to take the initiative, and support volunteering efforts aiming at diffusing traffic awareness among their colleagues.
