Number of motorists fined jumps as Dubai police add more cameras

he number of fines issued to motorists for offences detected by radar rose nearly by half last month, say Dubai Police.

DUBAI // The number of fines issued to motorists for offences detected by radar rose nearly by half last month, Dubai Police said yesterday. Dubai Police statistics showed that 96,470 such fines were issued in October, compared with 65,480 in September. Police attributed the rise to the increasing number of cameras installed on the roads to catch speeding, jumping red lights and other violations. Radar caught 1,100 vehicles crossing red lights in October.

The police recently announced that 500 additional radar cameras would be installed by the end of the year, mainly on notoriously dangerous roads such as Sheikh Zayed Road, Emirates Road and the Dubai-Al Ain Road. "We aim to have one radar for every two kilometres in all the outer roads," said Brig Mohammed Saif al Zafeen, director of Dubai Police's traffic department. Ninety per cent of traffic deaths are attributable to speeding, he said.

The police took their recently launched Hostile Driving Campaign to Dubai Women's College, lecturing students on the dangers of aggressive driving. Khaled Mubarak Kansham of the traffic department told them that aggressive driving was often a sign of carelessness and immaturity. He said examples of aggressive driving included tailgating, random lane-shifting, failure to use indicators when changing lanes, dangerous overtaking, refusing to give way to other vehicles and failing to co-operate with other drivers. [e-mail]