Experts at a road-safety workshop held at Abu Dhabi Police’s smart traffic centre on Tuesday spoke of needing to address driver fatigue, distraction and speeding by training lorry drivers before they get behind the wheel.
Police statistics show that lorries were involved in six per cent of serious accidents, and 16 per cent of road deaths in the emirate this year.
Here is a list of the major lorry crashes that have occurred since January:
January 25: An Emirati man was killed when his vehicle collided with a car stopped in traffic, which in turn, hit a lorry on Emirates Road near the Dubai Club bridge towards Sharjah. Dubai Police urged motorists to drive carefully and abide by traffic rules.
February 9: Two lorries collided and one swerved off the road, closing four lanes on Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road. Minor injuries were reported.
February 24: A lorry hit a pedestrian bridge on Reem Island,, leading to its closure and that of two lanes on the road beneath it. No injuries were reported.
March 11: Three children were crushed to death after the car they were in was hit by a speeding lorry in the central region of Sharjah. Their 37-year-old mother and two other siblings suffered severe injuries when the lorry drove through a red light and hit their car.
March 17: A lorry carrying liquid gas overturned, landing on its side at a roundabout in Ras Al Khaimah. The driver lost control of the steering wheel but he did not sustain any serious injuries, police said.
March 17: A 31-year-old Egyptian motorist died after two lorries crashed into each other on the Masafi-Al Dhaid Road in the central region of Sharjah. Police said a lack of attention on the road, especially from the lorry drivers, was the main cause.
June 12: A lorry overloaded with sand overturned in Fujairah. Police said the driver lost control due to the heavy load. Officials urged lorry drivers to abide by weight restrictions, and avoid overloading their vehicles.
June 29: A 43-year-old man was killed in an incident involving three lorries. One person suffered moderate injuries.
June 30: A 20-year-old man was killed when his vehicle crashed into the back of a lorry in the E611, near Al Maktoum Airport. The victim was trapped in his vehicle, and rescue units had to cut him out.
July 10: A lorry swerved from its lane and flipped over, hitting a man in Al Rabat Street towards Bur Dubai. The man died from his injuries.
July 11: Two lorries went up in flames on two separate roads in Dubai, resulting in heavy congestion. No injuries were reported.
July 13: A lorry caught fire while being driven on Emirates Road. The driver was heading towards Sharjah when the fire started. Umm Al Quwain civil defence teams extinguished the fire and rescued the driver. No injuries were reported.
July 18: An Emirati woman who was driving a Lexus Station crashed into a lorry towards Dubai, near the Adnoc petrol station on Sheikh Khalifa Highway. The crash caused both vehicles to catch fire. She died in the collision.
July 26: Seven people were killed and 13 injured when a minibus collided with a lorry, which was stationary in the middle of the Emirates Road, near Al Maktoum Airport. The lorry was stopped in the third lane from the right after crashing into a pick-up truck.
August 26: An Emirati driver was killed and his two passengers seriously injured when a lorry crashed into their vehicle in Masafi. The Asian lorry driver took a fast U-turn without checking the road and caused the collision, police said.
rruiz@thenational.ae