UAE college students rewarded for designing road safety posters

DUBAI // Three female college students were rewarded yesterday for designing posters to raise road-safety awareness.

A competition was announced last October when the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) invited 5,000 university students to come up with the most creative designs for a poster to raise the awareness of driving distractions.

The winning posters will be displayed across the city and the three winners received gifts such as Bluetooth hands-free sets, other electronics and Dh2,000 in cash.

"It took me a week to come up with the idea for my poster," said one of the winners, Maram Abdulla, 19.

"I have very little experience in designing posters so I was very surprised when they told me I had won.

"I joined the competition because I liked the message behind it.

"Since this is an issue that affects almost all young drivers, I think young people have a better chance of designing posters that target those of their own age group, and can get a better response from them."

RTA officials said the competition was part of its extensive strategy to improve road safety.

"We want young college and university students to be ambassadors of safety in the community," said Maitha bin Udai, chief executive of RTA's traffic and roads agency.

Ms bin Udai went on to highlight the RTA's efforts in improving safety conditions on the roads.

"Our indicators and statistics show that, with the aid of our partners, Dubai Police and the Ministry of Interior, we are on the right path," she said.

"In the past seven years, fatalities on the road have dropped by 61 per cent - from 312 in 2006 to 123 in 2012."

Hussain Al Banna, director of the traffic department at the RTA, said: "Back in 2006, when the RTA was established, the rate of fatalities was 21.9 for every 100,000 residents.

"By 2012, we had that down to 3.78 per 100,000 residents, which can compare with the best in the world."